Benjamin Gilman: “I just want to rise to join with the gentlewoman from Texas to praise the modification of her amendment, and I think…”

“I just want to rise to join with the gentlewoman from Texas to praise the modification of her amendment, and I think that her proposal of monitoring what is going on in Ethiopia will be extremely helpful, and I thank the gentlewoman for working on this amendment so that it has language we can all agree upon. Ethiopia represents an enormous humanitarian challenge. From 1984 to 1991, we spent over one billion dollars on disaster relief for Ethiopia. Famines in 1984 and 1990 killed thousands of Ethiopians. All of this occurred while Ethiopia was ruled by one of the most brutal communist dictatorships in the world. Today, Ethiopia faces a structural food deficit. Millions of Ethiopians are dependent on the international community--particularly the United States--for food and basic services. Fortunately, the current government in Ethiopia is actively assisting us in these humanitarian efforts. This is a vast improvement from previous regimes which actively opposed our relief efforts and used starvation as a weapon against its domestic opponents. Our assistance program in Ethiopia must be seen in this context.”