Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding and also the Speaker for bringing us to this point.

Let me tell you, I am proud of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs portion of the bill that we are dealing with today.

Let's take out a little bit of the noise and the rhetoric and let's talk about what is in the bill. It includes a 6 percent reduction from fiscal year 2023.

Let's be clear, we are at a critical point in our history. One of our most important allies is in its time of greatest need, and this bill answers the call. It is the strongest pro-Israel State-Foreign Operations bill that we have ever seen.

So let's talk about facts. It provides $3.3 billion in FMF, Foreign Military Financing, for Israel.

Almost as important as what is funded, is what is not funded in this bill. The bill prohibits funds to UNRWA, which has become, frankly, a de facto subsidiary of Hamas.

The passage of this bill means not one additional dollar from American taxpayers will fund this deeply flawed organization. But if we go to a CR, we are going to continue to fund it.

The passage of this bill also prohibits funds for the anti-Semitic UN Commission of Inquiry against Israel.

The passage of this bill means no funds can be used to delist the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization or to implement that infamous nuclear agreement with Iran.

Another top priority, Madam Speaker, is countering Communist China. This bill includes $300 million Foreign Military Financing for Taiwan-- the first time ever in an appropriations bill that we have done that.

The passage of this bill prohibits the use of foreign aid to repay Chinese debt.

Also another priority to strengthening our national security is supporting democracy around the world and defending human rights and human dignity.

This bill increases funding to promote democracy and human rights in Cuba and establishes strict guidelines to ensure that this crucial funding supports the democratic opposition.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. So it helps the democratic opposition and not the terrorist regime's chosen businesses.

We also stand strongly against human trafficking and particularly human trafficking of doctors.

This bill also supports those struggling for freedom in our hemisphere's most repressive, anti-American dictatorships in Venezuela and Nicaragua.

If we fail to pass this bill, we lose provisions on the prohibition of funds for encouraging, organizing, facilitating, or promoting migrant caravans to the United States border.

If this bill fails, then those funding sources to again, organizations that are promoting caravans of illegal folks to the United States will continue. That is factual. That is in this bill.

If this legislation were not to pass, we lose the protection of free speech by limiting how funds can be used under the pretext of countering disinformation.

If this legislation were not to pass, we would go back to current law.

We would lose the restriction that only the U.S. flag may be flown or displayed over a facility of the State Department.

Madam Speaker, this bill reduces spending. It reprioritizes funding towards our vital national security interests and carries crucial limitations and smart policy changes to rein in the Biden administration. If this bill were to fail, we are giving carte blanche to the Biden bureaucracy.

It is a dramatic improvement, Madam Speaker, from current law.

Before I close, let me thank the staff for their hard work, and again, Madam Speaker, this is an important bill at a crucial, critical time when American leadership is sorely needed. We are not getting it from the White House. This bill goes a long way to reestablish American leadership.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source