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Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

In April 2007 I traveled with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and ten of my colleagues to Sudan. While there, we traveled to El Salaam Internally Displaced Persons Camp, and met with the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) Force Commander. We also met with officials with the UN mission in Sudan and the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 
 
I came away from my time in Darfur even more convinced that we must not falter in our pressure on Sudan to end their genocidal campaign against the Darfurians. We must lean hard on the rest of the world to lean even harder on the Sudanese government to allow in a UN peacekeeping force and to stop the genocide. 
 
I have cosigned a bicameral, bipartisan letter to President Bush urging him to send a clear message to the Sudanese government that the United States and international community expect Sudan to remove impediments to humanitarian access and ensure that all aid relief agencies and workers are treated equally and fairly.  I have also cosigned a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao requesting him to use his influence and impress upon the Sudanese government to accept a robust AU/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. 
 
The House also passed a bill I sponsored with my colleagues Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Illeana Ros-Lehtinen calling on the President of the United States and the international community to take immediate steps to respond to and prevent acts of rape and sexual violence against the most innocent of Darfur's victims - young girls and women.
 
I also cosponsored and voted in support of the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007. This bill would require the Secretary of the Treasury to create a list of companies who have a direct investment in or are conducting business operations in Sudan’s power, mineral, oil, or military equipment industries. It would authorize states and local governments to divest, based on the Treasury list, or a list of their own creation to protect them from lawsuits.The Act was passed unanimously by the House and the Senate in December 2007. 

In May of 1998 Secretary General Kofi Annan, who had been chief of UN peacekeeping during the Rwandan crisis, admitted, “We will not deny that, in their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda.” I refuse to abandon the people of Darfur in their hour of need. I will continue to work in Congress to end the current tragedy occurring in Sudan so that in the future we will not look back and tragically say that once again we failed to stop genocide.

According to CARE International, a leading international humanitarian organization, more than 840 million people worldwide are malnourished, and 790 million of those suffering from malnourishment live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan nations constitute the majority of the 54 countries worldwide that do not produce enough food to feed their own people, nor can they afford to import enough commodities to compensate for the lack of domestic resources. In southern and east Africa alone, approximately 18 million people suffer from hunger. I believe that these numbers are both disturbing and morally reprehensible. As a member of the Africa and Global Health Subcommittee, I am committed to helping the most vulnerable members of our society, including our global community.