Barbara Lee Speaks at Hearing on Bush Compliance with Darfur Law
For Immediate Release: February 9, 2008
Contact: Cleve Mesidor, (202) 225-2661
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-9) delivered the following statement Friday during a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee addressing the signing statement President Bush issued on Lee’s Darfur divestment law: [As prepared]
Thank you very much Chairman Barney Frank.
The Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act would have not been possible without your leadership, your intellect, your understanding of what we had to do in terms of making sure that the legislative process worked.
I also want to thank you for your moral and ethical commitment for understanding America’s role in our world and how this House Financial Services Committee, under your leadership, can really address and become once again a leader in setting a new moral standard.
I want to also thank Ranking Member Spencer Bachus for his commitment and his willingness to work in a bipartisan fashion. I know this stems not for political reasons but for moral reasons. He understands that this is necessary in terms of how we address many of these moral crisises. And yes genocide is a great moral and humanitarian crisis. So I have to thank Congressman Spencer Bachus and this entire committee for stepping up to the plate and for taking this on, head on.
I think Congressman Mel Watt mentioned the South Africa Model, which my predecessor, now Mayor Ron Dellums, successfully carried the divestment legislation.
And as I remember it, President Regan vetoed that legislation. But Congress overrode that veto and finally put the United States on the right side of history as it relates to the oppressive brutal regime of apartheid in South Africa.
And so now there is another great crisis and that is the genocide that is occurring in Darfur.
This Congress in a bipartisan way passed the toughest and most reasonable divestment legislation which we are talking about today. But it seems President Bush knew he could not override or veto this bill.
This is really where the rubber meets the road. The president declared genocide is taking place in Darfur and indicated several years ago that he would take all measures to address this genocide.
So we have a bill that would begin to put the squeeze on Khartoum and would allow our people in this country our universities, pension funds, states to begin to do what they need to do to address this genocide.
But President Bush has issued a signing statement that in essence would try to send a signal that this is not something that he would approve. So I think this is very contradictory and cynical.
I’m pleased that we are holding the hearings today. I want to thank our panel for being here and for your leadership.
And I especially want to thank all of our young people, the faith community, and all the groups who have really been the wind beneath our wings throughout the country.
Finally, let me just say President Bush also has issued a signing statement on our bipartisan effort on the defense authorization bill, which has a provision banning permanent military bases in Iraq. But once again, subverting the law, he has issued a signing statement saying that that this is something, in essence, the administration is not going to comply with.
This governmental lawlessness is unbelievably wrong and it is unconstitutional.
Mr. Frank I want to thank you for your leadership and for helping us try to figure out how we can move forward to make sure the law is complied with.
We cannot allow another Rwanda to occur. Thank you.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-9) is co-chair of the Progressive Caucus and a co-founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus. She sits on the House Appropriations Committee, where she serves on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee, the State Foreign Operations Subcommittee and is Vice-Chair of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee.
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