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. WICKER. I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. Chairman, my colleagues, I rise in opposition to the amendment and urge my colleagues for a strong vote against this ill-advised initiative.

In debate on the House floor some 2 years ago, some of the advocates of this amendment today rose and very eloquently spoke basically on the other side of the argument, saying that this would be ill advised, it would be unilateral action against a friend of ours.

I thought those remarks were correct at the time. And I am disappointed that some of the advocates of this amendment have changed their minds over 2 years' time. What has happened in 2 years?

Well, one thing that has happened is they have had a presidential election in Egypt which has represented progress. Now, we were not happy with everything that happened with the parliamentary elections, and it was not exactly a perfect presidential election in Egypt. But they had multiple parties, they had an open process. And I think almost every person who watched this on the international stage said it represented progress. So what has happened between 2004 and now is actual progress in Egypt. I commend them for that. But let's talk about why we have this bill at all. I meant to get down here for general debate to discuss this. We do foreign assistance for altruistic reasons, certainly for humanitarian reasons, of course. But the main reason we do foreign assistance is we do it in the American national interest. This bill is a very important part of our national security package. And let me tell you about the national interest. Those of you who have been to the Middle East know that we do not have a lot of friends over there. But one friend we have in that area is Egypt. Since Nasser kicked the Soviets out, since Sadat helped with Camp David, with the beginnings of that Arab-Israeli peace process up until today, Egypt has been our strategic friend and our strategic partner.

Talk about national interests: When we went in with Operation Iraqi Freedom, some of our allies, Turkey, for example, would not let us through. How much trouble did that cause us, because we were not able to go into Iraq through Turkey?

By contrast, Egypt has allowed us to use the Suez for that purpose. They have allowed us continuous overflights. And just recently, they have been instrumental in helping with the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza. They have helped us when it counted.

How many American soldiers are alive today because Egypt was our friend in Operation Iraqi Freedom? How many billions of dollars have we saved for the American taxpayers because Egypt has been our friend?

An amendment that was stronger than this was offered in the Appropriations Committee, and it was rejected overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis. The authors of this amendment have attempted to soften it here on the floor. And one of the things that they have tried to do is take the money from Egypt and give it to programs that we all like--AIDS in Africa, Darfur, things of that nature. It is hard to resist. It sounds good.

But my friends, these people in Egypt have stood by us in a tough, tough neighborhood. And I do not think this amendment is the sort of thing we do to our friends. It might make us feel good, but it is terrible foreign policy, and I believe the House of Representatives will reject this amendment.

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