Paul S. Sarbanes: “I implore my colleagues to think very carefully about this amendment. I think it could have a very deleterious effect on…”

“I implore my colleagues to think very carefully about this amendment. I think it could have a very deleterious effect on the conduct of the U.S. foreign policy. On the surface, it seems to be a reasonable amendment. It says if a country has not voted with us at least 25 percent of the time at the United Nations, there will be no American economic or security assistance to that country. It is important to examine what these votes represent. Of the 88 recorded plenary votes at the 47th U.N. General Assembly, the United States voted alone 8 times; we voted with only one other country 21 times; and we voted with 2 other countries 8 times. So for 37 out of the 88 votes that are being used to make this judgment, the United States had either no country, one country or only two countries voting with us. That accounts for 40 percent of the votes that are being used to make this measure. The countries that would be affected are some countries that have been very helpful to us and are playing an instrumental role in some very important international efforts at the moment: Morocco, Tunisia, the Philippines, Cyprus, Jordan. Some of these countries are essential to the effort to move the peace process in the Middle East.”