Patrick Leahy: “I wish to urge Senators who have amendments to come forward. There is no reason this bill cannot be finished. Even if we…”

“I wish to urge Senators who have amendments to come forward. There is no reason this bill cannot be finished. Even if we finish it fairly soon, I hope Members of the Senate will realize the importance of this bill. I remember coming to the Senate at a time when so many would talk about foreign aid as some kind of a massive giveaway. People would ask, What have these countries done to help us? Why are we sending money there? Fortunately, at that time we had people such as Senator Mike Mansfield, a happy memory in the Senate, and people who preceded the Presiding Officer, Senator Jacob Javits on the Republican side who knew how important these programs were. Of course, you can argue that there are a whole number of reasons. We are the wealthiest, most powerful nation history has ever known. You could speak to the moral reasons we should be helping other countries. We could talk about what it does for our security interests. If we bring about stability in other parts of the world, we help democracy flourish. We would help the middle class build up in areas that otherwise were prone to overthrows of governments, instability, rebellions.”