Alcee Hastings: “Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that this measure is before us as the President is in Africa with 17 of our colleagues…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that this measure is before us as the President is in Africa with 17 of our colleagues, one of whom is the chairwoman of the Black Caucus that asked that we not proceed in this matter. The historic visit and the important foreign policy statements by the President and our colleagues are undermined by our taking action on this extremely untimely and partisan process. This report was never even shared with Democrats before it was filed and the final product was signed only by Republicans, but not even all the Republicans originally on the conference committee. Not surprisingly, the report that came out of the process is loaded with bad policy. Let me give my colleagues an example. The President announced last April that he would consolidate two foreign policy agencies into the Department of State. Those agencies are the United States Information Agency and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. The Republicans purport to have done that in this conference report. They claim that they have done in this conference report only what the President announced last April. This is just not the case. The statement of managers for this flawed bill asserts that the State Department will be responsible for designing foreign assistance programs. This assertion is totally inconsistent with the language of the underlying bill.”