Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006

FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)

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AMENDMENT OFFERED BY MR. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

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Mr. PITTS. Mr. Chairman, I commend the chairman for his work on these complicated issues but I rise to raise an issue that we just heard about from the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and which we have heard about in past years from the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos). I think the time has come to say enough is enough.

Since 1979 Egypt has been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance. Each year Egypt receives about $2 billion in economic and military aid. The money goes to support our strategic ally in the Middle East. But I think this money is largely misspent today on a nation that refuses change and excuses oppression.

The State Department tells us that Egyptian police routinely use torture to extract confessions and detain suspects without charge or trial. Egyptian authorities harass and imprison opposition party candidates on trumped up charges. The government is engaged in an unwarranted and dangerous military build-up. It oppresses religious minorities. It violates human rights. It obstructs democratic reforms. It censors the media. In fact, the media is controlled by the government there and they permit a lot of anti-Semitism and hate speech. It continues to arrest Christian converts who leave Islam. I could go on and on.

Egypt is an ally. But we can no longer afford to excuse oppression with the rhetoric of stability and the politics of fear.

We can no longer afford a wholesale subsidizing of such huge violators of basic human rights and basic freedoms.

My amendment would take some of the money that we spend to underwrite the Egyptian military and send it to programs that fight malaria by increasing USAID's Child Survival and Health Account for other infectious diseases, particularly malaria. Malaria kills as many as 3 million people each year. Up to 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa and 90 percent are children under the age of 5. And though it is difficult to accurately assess the scale of the disease, the WHO estimates that 40 percent of the world's population is at risk of malaria, and there are between 350 and 500 million clinical cases every year.

Malaria disproportionately affects the poor. Fifty-eight percent of malaria deaths occur in the poorest 20 percent of the world's population, a higher percentage than for any other disease of major public health importance.

Reducing Egypt's military subsidy by $750 million will serve to send a strong message. Money sent to a nation, even a strong ally like Egypt, that refuses to make the necessary political, democratic and human rights reforms should be redirected to a place that better represents our values. In this case I can think of no better use for this funding than to treat and prevent malaria in Africa.

According to the CBO, this transfer will result in a savings of $400 million in FY 2006 in net outlays. A vote for this amendment is a vote for more responsible Federal spending. It is a vote for American values. It is a vote for kids. It is a vote against the status quo of Egypt's dictatorship.

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