Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, let me just say briefly that I have gotten a lot of calls about Egypt as well. Look, I understand it. We look at what is happening over there, we look at some of the wild things that are happening in the streets, certainly tragedies as well. We see the oppression of religious minorities, and we wonder: Why do we continue to give aid to a country that does that? I think that is a very important question.

I think the problem we face is we in this place are sometimes put into a position between two absolutes, when there are other options available to us. The choice before us is not to cut off aid to Egypt or to continue aid to Egypt. I think the opportunity we have now is to restructure aid to Egypt in a way that furthers our national interest.

What is our national interest in Egypt? Our national interest is to have a secular, stable, democratic government that provides security so their economy can grow, a government that lives up to the Camp David Accords, that cooperates in counterterrorism, that prevents discrimination to religious minorities. Our foreign aid should be restructured--not simply canceled but restructured--so that it fits and fills that aim that we have for that country and for our national security interests in that country. That means we should restructure our foreign aid, not simply eliminate it but go back to the Egyptians and say: If you want to continue to get foreign aid from the United States, you are going to have to show measurable improvement on these four things: You are going to show us how you are protecting religious minorities; you are going to have to show us how you are advancing toward democracy and stability. You are going to have to show how you are doing these things. That needs to be measured. If they stop doing it, the aid stops coming.

I would also say regarding restructuring the aid that the aid should be geared toward what they need. They probably do not need that many for more F-16s. What they need is more capacity building for internal security. What they need is more capacity building to live up to the Camp David Accords. That is what they need. Our aid should be aimed toward that.

I also think it is a mistake to just say we are eliminating aid completely because if we eliminate aid completely, we lose leverage. They are still going to buy weapons. They will just not get them from us and our influence will be diminished.

So I think there is a third way. I think what has happened in Egypt is a unique opportunity to restructure--not to cancel but to restructure--and reframe our relationship with Egypt. If they do certain things, they will continue to get aid. If they move toward certain goals that are in our national interest, they will continue to get aid. They will continue to get aid that helps them meet these goals, not simply anything they ask for.

This is the opportunity we have now. This should be done in a thoughtful and careful way. I hope that is the direction the body will move. I think to simply cancel aid without putting these other conditions in place is a missed opportunity from which we should not walk away.

So I would say to our colleagues, let's not simply cut off aid. Let's take
the time to work so that we can restructure aid with Egypt in a way that furthers our national security interests: a secular, democratic government that lives up to the Camp David Accords, that cooperates in counterterrorism, that respects religious minorities, and that provides the internal security they need to create the economic growth they need so that they can be stable now and in the future and be a partner of ours.

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