Tom Lantos: “I also want to thank the scores of my colleagues on the Republican and Democratic sides who have seen the wisdom of an…”

“I also want to thank the scores of my colleagues on the Republican and Democratic sides who have seen the wisdom of an amendment I will propose which will represent a fundamental change in U.S. foreign policy with respect to the Middle East. It is an amendment, the prime beneficiaries of which are the Egyptian people. I will explain. I am proposing to shift one-quarter of the military aid we are providing on automatic pilot to Egypt and shift that dollar-for-dollar for economic aid, for education, health programs, democracy-building, free media. Egypt is fortunate enough to have no military threat aimed at it. There are three neighbors Egypt has: the Sudan, which certainly is no military threat to Egypt; Israel, which has peace with Egypt; and Libya, which has just surrendered to the United States all of its weapons of mass destruction. Egypt is one of the most fortunate nations on the face of this planet in terms of its security situation. It has no threat against it. Yet, year after year, as if we were on automatic pilot, we are providing the Egyptian military with high-tech equipment amounting to $1.3 billion. It is one of the worst expenditures of our foreign aid program.”