CHICAGO,
IL -- U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today decried Republican
tactics that will result in taxpayers continuing to fund the controversial
United States Army School of the Americas (SOA). She expressed her
anger and disbelief during a rally with Chicago activists.
Earlier
this year, the House of Representatives, in a bipartisan vote, approved
an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill by Representative
Joe Moakley (D-MA) to prohibit funding for SOA. The House voted 230-197
to eliminate $2 million in training funds. The Senate did not include
similar language in its version of the bill.
During
negotiations to craft a final version of the bill, House Republican negotiators
dropped the Moakley amendment from the bill. The House conferees
voted 8-7 to recede to the Senate position. As a result, funding
for SOA will continue.
"A
few Republican members have blatantly disregarded the will of the majority
of the House of Representatives. They have decided to continue to
fund a school that trains terrorists and human rights abusers at the expense
of the American taxpayers," Schakowsky said.
Schakowsky,
an active member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, attended a news
conference organized by the Illinois SOA Watch and the Chicago Religious
Leadership Network on Latin America.
"We
have heard the horrific stories of rape, disappearance, torture and death
conducted by graduates of the School of the Americas. We will not
stop, we will not stand idly by, and we will not rest until this institution
of violence and hate is shut down forever," added Schakowsky, who is a
cosponsor of H.R. 732, a bill to close SOA.
Schakowsky
visited El Salvador after the murder of six Jesuit priests and two women.
Graduates of SOA were linked to the 1989 murders.
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