Gregory Meeks: “I want to clarify for Mr. Mills that when I mentioned we had not had any deaths in Somalia, I said in the last 4 years.…”

“I want to clarify for Mr. Mills that when I mentioned we had not had any deaths in Somalia, I said in the last 4 years. I was acknowledging what happened before. In the last 4 years we have not lost any American troops in Somalia. Let me also say, as I said earlier, I am happy that we are having this debate and talking about the continent of Africa. If we do that, we have to listen to the African--I can just recall, and sometimes many of my colleagues, especially on the other side of the aisle, argue that we don't get the votes we need at times in the U.N. from African countries. I recall when we were trying to get votes in regard to Russia's illegal invasion into Ukraine, and I had to call on African ambassadors. They said: Now you are calling? We haven't heard from the United States for a while. Now you want something from me? {time} 1315 We have been asking for assistance in regard to security, and then I watched to see what was taking place when we looked at our diplomacy. It took over two decades before, in the 117th Congress, we passed a State Department authorization bill, and we had to do that through the NDAA as opposed to saying we were going to stand strongly on diplomacy. Guess what China did during that period of time? They doubled their diplomacy budget. Guess what else is happening? For the first time, China has more consulates than the United States of America.…”