Anthony Weiner: “I believe this is the last of the amendments. Let me conclude by offering my thanks to the chairman and ranking member…”

“I believe this is the last of the amendments. Let me conclude by offering my thanks to the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittee for some very fine work. For those Members who heard the recitation of the amendment and heard that none of the funds shall be appropriated or otherwise made available for Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Syria, you might say, how could there possibly be any controversy in that? Frankly, the question is should Saudi Arabia be included in that list? And I think, frankly, like the previous two speakers, the argument is not why should money be struck, the argument should always be made why should we be providing funding? You are going to hear from opponents of this amendment that, well, the Secretary of State and the Department of State feel sure, certain, that after years and years of Saudi Arabia exporting terrorism, after clear links to September 11, after connections with them exploiting Wahabism, after efforts continually stymied by the United States to get the Saudis to stop this behavior, we still should provide them some funding because maybe, just maybe they will get better later on. We have this desire, and it is a fervent one, to find a player in the Middle East that will turn out to be a true ally. We have it in Israel and perhaps some at the State Department believe they have it in Saudi Arabia. But the record is simply different.…”