The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (House of Representatives - June 21, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Chairwoman Lowey has made it perfectly clear her intent to allow only for the provision of donated contraceptives. Some of our colleagues have expressed concerns that the language, as currently written, could be interpreted more broadly than intended. Therefore, Chairwoman Lowey is offering this amendment to clarify this provision.

This amendment is crystal clear, my friends. It would only allow nongovernmental organizations to receive U.S. donated contraceptives, not funds, for distribution to millions of men and women in desperate need of these products.

Mr. Chairman, we cannot reduce abortions without contraception. That is a fact. Contraception is about prevention. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to talk about prevention, that is the focus of this amendment.

And let me just say this to all of my colleagues; for those in this body who proclaim to want to protect lives and to save lives and that is your mission, you have but one choice in this debate, and that is to support the Lowey amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the amendment and I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for offering it.

By prohibiting any funding in this bill from being used for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the infamous U.S. Army School of the Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia, we can stand up for human rights, we can honor our principles and send a strong message to the world.

The School of the Americas has been associated with human rights abuses, with many of its students linked to Latin American coups and vicious death squads. In 1989, graduates from the school killed six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. And today they have a new name, but they have not changed the school's old patterns of abuse and conflict. The institute continues admitting and graduating known human rights abusers. Yes, Colonel Francisco del Cid Diaz, for example, who commanded a unit responsible for a notorious massacre of indigenous people in El Salvador in 1983, then attended the institute on our own soil as recently as 2003. And there are others just like him. It is clear that the institute continually fails not only to fully investigate the prior history of its students but also to track their activity after graduation. That is why nations like Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay have terminated their relationship with the institute. It is clear neither those nations nor this one have anything to gain by supporting an institution with such a marred, violent history.

One hundred sixty-seven U.S. Catholic bishops agree. They have written Congress in support of this amendment and called for the institute's closure, recognizing that many of its graduates have consistently targeted Catholic clergy and lay workers across Latin America. As a Congresswoman, a Catholic and an American, I believe every action that we take sends the whole world a clear message about our priorities and values as a Nation.

I urge my colleagues to support the McGovern amendment, make it clear we are serious about human rights and that the United States of America does not train murderers or killers and that we take the loss of human life seriously.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source