Ed Royce: “I rise in support of H.R. 2601. The chairman, Ranking Member, and Committee members have worked well to give our State…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 2601. The chairman, Ranking Member, and Committee members have worked well to give our State Department the tools necessary to carry out our Nations' foreign policy in a very challenging world. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, I'd like to bring attention to two important provisions in this bill. Importantly, this bill offers support to the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative, a comprehensive counter-terrorism program in north Africa. Its predecessor, the Pan-Sahel Initiative, has worked to boost the anti-terrorist capabilities of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad--producing promising results with modest resources. The effort to expand the PSI into the TSCTI, so that countries across the Sahara are able to bolster their ability to deny terrorist sanctuaries, is a much- needed development. Transnational terrorists, linked to al-Qaeda, have been found operating in this vast, and largely ungoverned portion of the world. The United States must respond to Africa's growing strategic importance. This program, when fully implemented, will be an important step in that direction. Additionally, the bill updates the existing legislation requiring that the State Department annually report to Congress on Patterns of Global Terrorism. For the past 2 years, this key report has been mired in controversy. The 2003 edition errored in underreporting attacks.…”