Earl Blumenauer: “it is not often that we get everybody here in Congress to agree. But we do agree that Darfur's continuing nightmare is…”

“it is not often that we get everybody here in Congress to agree. But we do agree that Darfur's continuing nightmare is genocide. We have labeled it as such. We have all condemned it. The problem is we are not acting to stop it. The foreign ops appropriations inexplicably dropped $50 million in conference that would have gone to support peacekeepers from the African Union. We often use this opportunity here today to talk to the American people. Well, today I am talking to the 8,000 men and women on Capitol Hill who make things happen in Congress. Do not go home unless you ask what your office, your committee, your boss, your Member of Congress is going to do to stop the murder, the rape, the destruction and the violence. At the very least, work to restore the $50 million in the defense appropriations so that 7,700 African Union peace keepers can be on the job. 7,700 people for an area the size of Texas does not sound like too much. It is the least we can do as we enter the holiday season. ____________________”