Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to focus on the 40 percent of this bill that gets little or no attention. It provides $9.1 billion in humanitarian aid, and that aid is un-earmarked.

So at a hearing last week, I got the administration to go on record as to where that money will be spent.

It will be spent in Haiti where 80 percent of the capital is in the hands of gangs and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee.

It will be spent in Sudan where 18 million people face ``acute food insecurity'' due to civil war.

It will be spent in Ethiopia, where we have seen the highest casualty war of this decade. Five hundred thousand Tigrayans have died, and now millions face famine.

It will be spent in eastern Congo where 7 million people have been displaced by war. It will be spent on the 1.1 million Rohingya in camps, where they are due to ethnic cleansing by Myanmar, and where rations have recently been cut by 30 percent due to lack of funding.

It will be spent in Armenia where 120,000 refugees are there because of Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing.

It will be spent to meet the critical needs in Gaza.

This bill will save hundreds of thousands, I believe millions, of lives. Vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I commend President Biden for putting this whole package together back in October. It is time to pass it now.

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