Hal Rogers: “As I mentioned in my statement, Mr. Chairman, the bill before us today contains $3.1 billion in a Foreign Military…”

“As I mentioned in my statement, Mr. Chairman, the bill before us today contains $3.1 billion in a Foreign Military Financing program funded for Israel, which fully funds the last year of the current memorandum of understanding with Israel. This amendment would reduce the Foreign Military Financing program account by more than $80 million. In addition to Israel, this account provides funds for Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Colombia, and Ukraine. The President's budget request proposed deep cuts to this account, which we clearly rejected in the committee mark. I should also note that the bill already provides over $6 billion for humanitarian assistance. I do appreciate the gentleman's desire to help the Ethiopian-Israeli community, but I cannot support an $80 million cut to security assistance. So I urge a ``no'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.”