Barney Frank: “I have one serious regret about this bill, but it is beyond the capacity of the members of the subcommittee or even the…”

“I have one serious regret about this bill, but it is beyond the capacity of the members of the subcommittee or even the full committee to deal with. There is not enough money. We do not do enough to alleviate poverty in the world. We could do better. In fact, right now we have taken on an obligation by the war we have waged in Afghanistan, which we had not just a right but an obligation to wage, and I am delighted with our success; but it has given us an obligation to go now into Afghanistan economically and politically and in other ways to try to make that a better society than it was before. I have one other point that I want to comment on. I have long supported aid to Egypt. I was glad Egypt played the constructive role it did beginning in the late seventies in the Middle East. But I am becoming less and less happy with the role Egypt plays. It is becoming less and less willing to be a constructive force. I want to say that I was particularly outraged when the Egyptian Government decided a few months ago to engage in blatant oppression of Egyptian men who happen to be homosexual. This happened long after this process had begun. The Egyptian Government ought to understand that it cannot with impunity continue to be so oppressive towards people's human rights, and in particular, its most recent outbreak of severe, unjustified, blatant prejudice, jailing men for no good reason whatsoever.”