[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 7, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FOREIGN OPERATIONS REQUEST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the President's budget request for fiscal 
year 2007 proposes 20 percent more military aid to Azerbaijan than to 
Armenia. This request is a clear breach of an agreement struck between 
the White House and the Congress in 2001 to maintain parity in U.S. 
military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
  Mr. Speaker, the parity agreement is unfortunately a battle that the 
Armenian people have had to fight in the past. The fiscal year 2005 
Presidential request was similar in that it called for more military 
funding to Azerbaijan.
  However, the Congress reversed the President to ensure military 
parity in the fiscal year 2005 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act. 
After that battle and the President's 2006 budget request that included 
parity, I thought the President's fiscal year 2007 budget would 
continue that policy. But unfortunately that was not the case. A lack 
of military parity would, in my opinion, weaken ongoing peace 
negotiations regarding Nagorno Karabakh, among other things.
  It will also contribute to further instability in the region, and it 
undermines the role of the United States as an impartial mediator of 
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Mr. Speaker, the government should not 
be rewarding the Government of Azerbaijan for walking away from the 
organization for security and cooperation in Europe's Key West peace 
talks, the most promising opportunity to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh 
conflict in nearly a decade.
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the administration's budget also calls 
for drastic cuts in economic assistance to Armenia. I was discouraged 
to see that the President requested a 33 percent decrease in economic 
aid from $74.4 million last year to $50 million this year. Technical 
and developmental assistance and investment is essential to Armenia. 
This funding is key to democratic stability and economic reform in the 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, is this the message we want to send to our friends in 
Armenia? Do we want to cut economic aid to a country that is terrorized 
by its neighbors and is shut off on its eastern and western borders due 
to an illegal blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan?
  Mr. Speaker, in the coming weeks I will advocate to the Foreign 
Operations Subcommittee to restore military parity, to increase 
economic assistance to Armenia and to provide for humanitarian aid to 
the people of Nagorno Karabakh. It is incredibly important to reward 
our allies and to send a message to Azerbaijan and Turkey that 
ethnically charged genocides, illegal blockades of sovereign nations, 
and the constant harassment of the Armenian people will not be 
tolerated.

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