On the recordDecember 19, 2011
I want to congratulate my friend from New Jersey. He has been a passionate advocate for human rights across the board. He and I may not always agree on all issues, but his passion and his commitment to human rights universally cannot be questioned and has made a great contribution to this institution, and I thank him. I believe that the yearning for human rights is a basic human yearning. It is not limited to the American culture or the Western culture, as we have seen in the outpouring of support during the Arab Spring for the basic human freedoms: the right to organize, the right to express politically, the right to practice one's religion freely, the right to organize political parties and to involve themselves in political dissent. These are universal yearnings, as our Founders understood, in their genius, in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. And it is absolutely a fundamental American value that we proclaim those freedoms, and we assist those who seek actively in that yearning to implement those freedoms. Again, I congratulate the distinguished chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and our colleague from New Jersey for their leadership. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
