Sam Brownback: “I am introducing today a bill, along with Senator McConnell, and there will be others who will be added as cosponsors to…”

“I am introducing today a bill, along with Senator McConnell, and there will be others who will be added as cosponsors to the bill, to provide limited authority to the President to provide assistance to Pakistan and India. This bill provides a limited waiver authority to the President to provide foreign aid assistance to Pakistan and to India. I do not need to remind anybody in this body of the difficulty facing particularly Pakistan at this time, as General Musharraf, the Chief Executive of the country, stepped forward to support the United States in this time of fighting international terrorism, particularly that which is based in Afghanistan. Yet because of prior legislation, the United States cannot provide certain types of aid to Pakistan that I believe the administration may well need to provide to Pakistan to keep the Government there, to provide support and help to the Government. For instance, the U.S. Government today, because of sanctions that were put on Pakistan by law and there is no waiver authority, cannot provide more than $50 million in foreign aid assistance to Pakistan.”