David Obey: “I thank the gentleman. We were just told this amendment goes too far. The fact is the State Department made phone calls…”

“I thank the gentleman. We were just told this amendment goes too far. The fact is the State Department made phone calls to a number of people here yesterday indicating they would be willing to support this amendment. The only difference was that they wanted $50 million going to added democratization programs rather than going to AIDS. That was the only difference, because the State Department is getting fed up with the conduct that Egypt is demonstrating, and the State Department recognizes that this is a very dangerous slippery slope the Egyptian government is on. So some may think this amendment goes far, but based on these conversation yesterday, the State Department is not one of them.”