Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the chairman of the Rules Committee and one of the most vocal Members on Sudan in Congress. He has done great work for many years. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, as an original cosponsor, I rise in support of H. Res. 432, and I want to commend my good friend and colleague, Mr. Kildee, for his leadership on this issue. I also want to commend the incredible work of Chairman Engel for all he has done on this issue, as well as Chairwoman Bass and Mr. Bilirakis and others here. Mr. Speaker, I am here today to express my unwavering support for the people of Sudan in their long-held desire to live in a democratic nation, a nation where all the Sudanese people live in dignity and where their rights and freedoms are respected and protected. For three decades, the people of Sudan have suffered under the brutal, genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir. They were murdered, mutilated, bombed, starved, imprisoned, tortured, and raped by Bashir's army, air force, police, intelligence unit, and paramilitary allies, formerly known as the Janjaweed and now organized as the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces. Villages were burned to the ground, churches destroyed, radio stations and the press shut down, protests violently repressed, and food and medicine denied to populations at risk. Last December, the people of Sudan rose up in massive protests across the country and said: Enough. No more. The time for change is now.…”