Political Quotes

“I regrettably rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Missouri. Simply put, this is an unhelpful amendment proffered at the wrong time. While I can understand the gentleman's motivations, I certainly cannot agree with the approach. Yes, Kenya's human rights record is blemished. Yes, democratic principles have not completely taken root there. And, yes, they have a long way to go before they achieve a full-fledged free market economy. Yes, we must continue to work to improve the situation there. However, by adopting this amendment, we will do serious damage to the important relationship between the United States and Kenya. In the past few years we have seen unsteady progress in human rights, but in a telling sign, the press has remained sufficiently free, and that has been a consistently critical voice of dissent against the government. Whereas in years past we have overlooked Kenya's human rights violations, we no longer tolerate these violations. In fact, our assistance program has built in performance-based budgeting systems, and aid to Kenya has actually decreased over the past several years.”