Donald M. Payne: “That certainly eases it a bit. I think also in this bill, we are talking about governance; that the countries, the five…”

“That certainly eases it a bit. I think also in this bill, we are talking about governance; that the countries, the five or six that will be selected have to go through elections. We are saying that there cannot be human rights abuses. We are saying that there has to be transparency in government. We are saying that there must be elections that are going on in these countries, or they do not fit into the first round. It is simply like NATO expansion. There are three countries that are going to be selected in NATO expansion. You have the Czech Republic, you have Poland, you have the third country in the NATO expansion, Hungary. It is those countries, because they have proven that they are moving in the right direction. There are still allegations of people being tortured, and the abuses of detainees, and prison conditions, even in Morocco. The government's use of force to dispel student protesters in Casablanca in January and February resulted in many human rights violations. There have been continued delays in elections, and at the time when the United Nations is finally attempting to broker an agreement between Morocco and western Sahara, the report that came back this week by former Secretary James Baker and Representative Dunbar states that Morocco has stalled the process again just last week. So I say, in conclusion, that we are sending the wrong message if we start to alter sub-Saharan Africa.…”