Rep Betty McCollum (D-MN) to GOP: Fund RNC Security or Cancel Convention

(Betty McCollum represents Minnesota's 4th Congressional District which includes St. Paul)

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=29...

Rep. Betty McCollum has been working to get advance funds for St. Paul to defray the costs of added security as the city plans for hundreds of thousands of visitors in September 2008. But House Republicans' stated plan to strip $50 million from an appropriations bill as well as a threatened veto of the bill by President Bush mean the money may not make it to St. Paul until much later in the process.
House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo, told Congressional Quarterly last week that the funding is not an emergency and that St. Paul can wait. "We've only known about the convention for years. It's not an emergency. We're not going to let them be included," he said. "If there's a true emergency out there, something we wouldn't have had any reason to anticipate, something that wouldn't be recurring, that's an emergency," Blunt said.

McCollum shot back in a press release Wednesday saying that the funding is necessary. "St. Paul's civic leaders and business community have been working tirelessly to ensure a successful and safe convention for our Republican guests. If the Republican leadership in the U.S. House does not want to provide the necessary security funding to protect the President of the United States, the Republican presidential nominee, convention delegates and my constituents then this convention can go somewhere else," McCollum said.

"Speaker Pelosi and Appropriations Chairman Obey (D-WI) have given their commitments to work to get this security funding to both St. Paul and Denver and I am grateful for their support. But if Republican leadership eliminates this security funding I will be calling on St. Paul's mayor and city council to pull the plug on the convention. The Republicans can take their convention to Guantanamo Bay where security won't be a problem, but St. Paul taxpayers will not be left holding the bill," she said.

One of the best lines EVER!

:woohoo:

sw