Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Chairman, I understand how important this issue is for the gentleman from Arkansas and for his constituents and salute him for his efforts.

As we all know, our farmers are some of the most patriotic Americans. I believe we should do everything we can to help them sell American agricultural products throughout the world. But we cannot, at the same time, help a Communist regime that harbors and supports terrorists and fugitives from U.S. law, the largest confiscator of U.S. property in history, fails to pay its debt, is one of the worst violators of human rights and religious freedom in the Western Hemisphere, is a top counterintelligence threat to the United States and a threat to democracy in Latin America.

I commit to my friend that I will sit down with him, along with my colleagues Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and Mr. Curbelo, to come up with a solution that meets the needs of the farmers that we all represent but does not endanger our national security or support the Castro regime, its military, or intelligence services.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source