Emergency Unemployment Compensation Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, after many long days and nights of four-party negotiations across a dozen subcommittees over the past month, on Sunday night the Appropriations Committee completed work on the fiscal year 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act.

I commend Chairwoman Mikulski, without whom this would not have been possible. It was, above all, her relentless pursuit of this goal and her unmatched ability to rally her subcommittee troops together to get us to this point.

I would also note that she was helped by some of the most hard working members of the Senate staff one can imagine. I want to especially commend Tim Rieser of my staff, and Janet Stormes and Nikole Manatt who worked with him. I could not keep track of the number of times I received emails or calls at midnight or 1 a.m. from Tim as we worked through all the difficult parts of this bill.

And it could not have been done without the cooperation of my friend from Alabama Senator Shelby, the committee's ranking member, who knew how important it was to pass appropriations bills rather than put the government on autopilot.

This means there will be no sequester in fiscal year 2014, and there will not be another disastrous government shutdown that achieved nothing, disrupted the lives of millions of American families, and cost the taxpayers some $24 billion and private industry tens of billions of dollars more.

As Chairman of the Department of State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, I want to thank Senator Lindsey Graham, who brings a level of energy and knowledge to our subcommittee few can match. He and I agree on an awful lot more than we disagree.

I want to mention a few things in the bill. But first, the big picture. For the Department of State and foreign operations, the bill provides $49 billion in discretionary budget authority to protect a wide array of U.S. security, humanitarian, and economic interests around the world. This total is $2.2 billion below the fiscal year 2013 enacted post-sequester level.

Of that amount, $6.5 billion is for overseas contingency operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and other areas in political transition, including the Middle East and North Africa, and to respond to humanitarian emergencies, particularly in Syria, the Middle East, and Central Africa.

If anyone should question why these funds are important, look at what is happening in Syria, and Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, where 2 million Syrians have fled, and in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced because of an explosion of ethnic and tribal violence. The bill provides significant increases in funding for refugees and other humanitarian programs.

The bill provides funding above the President's request for security at U.S. embassies and other diplomatic facilities; it fully funds our commitment to key allies such as Israel and Jordan; it substantially funds our contributions to the United Nations and other international organizations and for U.N. peacekeeping; and it fully funds the U.S. contributions to the Global AIDS Fund.

Many Senators care about global health, for good reason. HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases threaten millions of Americans who travel, live, study, and serve in the Armed Forces overseas as well as here at home. Many of the diseases we work to eradicate are only an airplane trip away from our own shores. Billions of people in the poorest countries, especially children, die or suffer from illnesses that can be easily prevented or treated. Our children and grandchildren will be immunized, but many children born in the poorest countries die before the age of five because of these diseases.

We provide a total of $6 billion--the highest amount in history--for programs to combat HIV/AIDS, including $1.65 billion for the Global Fund. We provide historic levels to combat polio, malaria, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases, and $175 million for the GAVI Alliance which provides lifesaving children's vaccines.

For Egypt, which many have been asking about, the bill provides up to the amounts requested for fiscal year 2014--$250 million for economic aid and $1.3 billion for military aid. But the military aid is only available to pay current defense contracts, and the goods and services may not be delivered to Egypt unless the Secretary of State certifies there is a national referendum and the government is taking steps to support the democratic transition and there are democratic elections and a newly elected government is taking steps to govern democratically.

These are the same commitments the government of Egypt made to the Egyptian people. Contrary to some inaccurate press reports, there is no waiver if the Egyptian Government reneges on these commitments. These are the toughest conditions the Congress has imposed on aid to the Egyptian military.

We want to see the restoration of democracy and respect for fundamental freedoms in Egypt, including the rights of women, civil society, and religious minorities. This is discussed in the explanatory statement accompanying the bill. If the military continues its repressive tactics, arresting democracy activists, and does not hold free and fair elections, the certifications will not be possible and U.S. aid will be cut.

The bill cuts aid for Afghanistan by 50 percent from the current level. It has become abundantly clear that as U.S. troops withdraw, the security environment is worsening. This reality, coupled with the refusal of the Karzai government to sign a bilateral security agreement, widespread corruption in that government, and the diminishing ability to monitor how U.S. funds are spent, compel a more targeted, sustainable approach.

I am pleased we were able to include the amounts requested for the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund, and to protect tropical forests which are being destroyed at an alarming rate, and to combat poaching and trafficking of wildlife.

There are some things I wish were not in here, particularly a House provision which would weaken limits on carbon emissions from projects financed by the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. We should be using public funds to support exports of clean, renewable technology, not to fund polluting projects that worsen global warming.

I am also very disappointed that a Senate provision to bring the United States into compliance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was rejected by the House of Representatives. By not including this provision we jeopardize the essential rights of consular assistance for Americans arrested in foreign countries, and we also weaken our credibility as a nation that respects the rule of law.

I would point out, the next time a constituent of a House Member is arrested overseas and denied access to the U.S. embassy, they should ask why they refused to support bringing the U.S. into compliance with the treaty that requires that access. It is hard for us to insist on consular assistance when Americans are arrested abroad, when we don't provide the same right to foreigners arrested here.

I do appreciate, however, the way the House--particularly Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Lowey and their staffs--worked with me, Senator Graham and his very able staff, and others. And, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the printing and editorial staff of the Government Printing Office who worked day and night, week after week and on many weekends, to produce draft after draft of the documents. It was a collaborative effort from beginning to end, and the outcome is a balanced bill that deserves bipartisan support.

I yield the floor.

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