[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 115 (Thursday, September 4, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS 
                        APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1998

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                               speech of

                         HON. CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 3, 1997

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2159) making 
     appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and 
     related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     1998, and for other purposes:

  Mr. RODRIQUEZ. Mr. Chairman, I want each one of us to ask ourselves:
  Can we go back to our districts and justify to our sons and daughters 
that we have to cut school loans, while at the School of the Americas, 
we have more than enough money to teach people like Manuel Noriega?
  Can we go back to our districts and justify over $200 million of 
hard-earned, taxpayer money spent on the School of the Americas, while 
we tell our senior citizens they must tighten up their belts?
  And what do we have to show for our money? We have six dead Jesuit 
priests, four raped nuns, nine students and their professor murdered, 
death squads in El Salvador, death squads in Honduras, murder of United 
States citizens in Guatemala, manuals on how to kidnap and torture. One 
can go on and on. Can we go back to our places of worship and justify 
this?
  Newspapers from our districts across this country all tell us ``it is 
time to close this school.'' The San Antonio Express News editorial 
stated in April, 1995:

       The [millions of dollars] a year the U.S. Army School of 
     the Americas costs to operate would be better spent on aid 
     for foreign students at U.S. colleges than at this breeding 
     ground for human rights abusers.

  If we do not stand up for this amendment * * * what do we stand for?

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