Foreign Operations, Export Financing , and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2007

FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I thank God that Members OBEY, HYDE and LANTOS have had the courage to bring this amendment. And I say so because, Mr. Chairman, a human crisis of the highest magnitude exists in Darfur. As we speak, we have had 2.5 million people displaced. Something has got to be done about that. We have had 3 million people put in a position such that they have to exist on emergency assistance. 400,000 people are dead. These are real people; these are real numbers. There is real suffering going on in Darfur.

I do not know what the headlines will read tomorrow in Egypt. I do not know what they are going to read here in my hometown of Houston or here in Washington, D.C., but I know this: at some point on the infinite continuum that we call time, the omniscient, the omnipresent, and the omnipotent will come together and every one of us will have to answer the question: Where were you when there was murder and rape and hunger in Darfur? Where were you when your brothers and your sisters were suffering?

I want to let you know that this is the least we can do for the people of Darfur.

Mr. Chairman, $50 million will go to the World Food Program that needs help. It only has 32 percent of what it needs to meet the demands of this crisis.

Mr. Chairman, we have to ask ourselves the question: If not now, when? When will we give help and aid to those in need?

If not here, where? Where will the help come from?

If not us, who? Who will the help come from?

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