Below are comments from Sen. Durbin on the Senate floor yesterday during debate on the omnibus approps bill, which includes Commerce, Justice, State, which funds VOA and RFE/RL.

The debate goes on today but it looks like the Dems will only be venting steam for a short time before the final bill is voted on.




AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - January 21, 2004)


Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL):

In the few minutes I have remaining, I will mention two or three other things I find troublesome in this bill. One of the major disappointments was the deletion of funding in the Commerce-Justice-State-Judiciary appropriations for the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcasting for Eastern Europe. The Senate bill included this funding, as did the Senate version of the authorization bill: $9 million for broadcasts to Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania, and Moldova. Unfortunately, this bill will cut off those broadcasts, and that is not the right thing to do. These are new democracies. They are still subject to instability. There is still gang and Soviet influence. I refer to the old Soviet gangs that still are alive and well and reborn in the form of syndicate operations. These democracies need the help of Radio Free Europe. I think putting that voice, as well as Radio Liberty, in a broadcast is an important thing to strengthen those democracies. Unfortunately, it was cut.

Märkmed: