Herbert Pell: “this amendment raises an issue the committee and the Senate have already debated and decided. In committee, an amendment…”

“this amendment raises an issue the committee and the Senate have already debated and decided. In committee, an amendment to eliminate funding for NED was defeated by a voice vote and then later during Senate consideration was defeated by a 74-to-23 vote. There is a reason the Senate has been so clear on this issue: Eliminating funding for the National Endowment for Democracy is the wrong thing to do. The NED has played a valuable role in promoting democracy in a number of nations where it has taken hold, where democracy thrives and where it seemed unlikely just 10 years ago. The importance of NED in this transition has been disclosed by the likes of Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel. With its relatively small grants, the NED can have a profound impact on strengthening democratic processes. At the time of the Senate debate on the appropriations measure sometime back, there was an outpouring of support for the NED, including on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.”