Political Quotes

“This amendment, unfortunately, would harm American leadership on the global stage, cutting our investment in the international organizations account by $10 million. Mr. Chairman, this bill already underfunds diplomacy and development when we should be investing more in these critical components of our national security. Cutting resources for our work in international organizations would take us further in the wrong direction. Just so we are clear about which international organizations we are talking about, they are NATO, the World Health Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Do we really want to damage the effectiveness of these organizations and our ability to lead from within them? Congress just passed critical sanctions on Russia. NATO is the main organization defending Europe against Vladimir Putin's aggression. But instead of bolstering the NATO alliance, this amendment would only reinforce the reluctance to support the North Atlantic Alliance by some in the administration. This should worry lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as well as Americans at home following the debate. How about the World Health Organization? The last time I looked, the World Health Organization was fighting the Zika and Ebola outbreaks. Do we now want to slash its funding and undermine its role of responding to the next major pandemic? I can assure you that the diseases we don't combat abroad today eventually will reach our shores.…”