Speaker. I rise in strong support of the conference report on the fiscal year 1993 foreign operations appropriations bill. This bill contains the long overdue approval for $10 billion in loan guarantees to assist Israel in absorbing the massive numbers of refugees from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia who have fled to Israel in recent years. Of course. we are pleased that the administration has finally endorsed the urgently needed loan guarantees. but it Is tragic that the approval for the loan guarantees was delayed unnecessarily for more than a year. and it is absolutely essential that we enact the guarantees as quickly as possible so that we can speed the rescue of remaining Jews in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The extended delay of the loan guarantees was Inappropriate and illadvised. For years. successive U.S. Presidents worked in close cooperation with the Congress to support free emigration from nations which do not respect basic human rights. However. when hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian and Soviet Jews finally were able to flee to Israel. the Bush administration blocked essential loan guaranteesdespite the fact that these loan guarantees Involve no cost to the American taxpayers. The administration did so for one reason and one reason alone--to pressure the State of Israel to make unilateral concessions in the Middle East peace process.
Keywords matched
emigration refugees