On the recordJanuary 25, 1994
the amendment I sent to the desk is a product of a compromise, a genuine hard-fought compromise, after months of deliberation and debate, not only in the Foreign Relations Committee but also within the executive branch and between the two branches. The debate has been arduous. It has not always been harmonious. But we have found a way forward that I believe all interested parties can agree on. This proposal literally reinvents an important instrumentality of U.S. foreign policy: International broadcasting. When I say ``reinvent,'' I mean that literally. We are fundamentally changing the way in which we organize our international broadcasting. Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, the Voice of America, and soon-to-be-established Radio Free Asia are not merely the names of radio services for millions of listeners around the globe. For those people, they represent a lifeline of news and information about their own countries and about the United States. I will not take the time of the Presiding Officer or my colleagues on the floor today to recite numerous examples where Central and Eastern European leaders who were behind the Iron Curtain as the curtain fell and the Berlin Wall came down credited--literally credited--Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and other broadcasting services with playing a major role in bringing an end to the Soviet domination of Eastern and Central Europe. They have a very, very proud past.…
