In a statement on the Senate floor, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations, laid out a strong declaration tying Egyptian aid to the recent NGO raids. Leahy noted there has been progress in Egypt exemplified by elections which have seated a new parliament, but infringements on due process, and the raids on the NGOs - that aim to promote democracy and human ...

On Wednesday, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced S.2058 barring companies "who engage in business or trading activity with Iran from buying oil from America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve." The "Iran Certification and Reporting Bill," co-sponsored by 16 other senators, was introduced in an attempt to "close loopholes, increase transparency, and improve effectiveness" of current sanctions. In order to take effect, the bill needs to be passed by the full Senate, incorporated with the existing legislation ...

Representatives Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced a resolution with David Dreier (R-CA), Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and David Price (D-NC) applauding Tunisia's peaceful "Jasmine Revolution." The resolution praised Tunisia's peaceful "Jasmine Revolution" as "the first of several movements throughout the Middle East and North Africa and inspired democracy and human rights activist throughout the region and around the world." The elections on October 23, 2011 were considered "the first competitive, multi-party democratic election of the ...

Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), and twelve other co-signers issued a letter to Egypt's Ambassador Sameh Shoukry today, stressing their concerns about the treatment of women in Egypt after the January 25 revolution. In the letter the congressmen stated that "we are extremely disturbed by violent scenes of soldiers' abuse against women activists", and that "events of the last month are only the latest in a string of developments which ...

Representatives Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Christopher S. Murphy (D-CT)  joined sixteen other cosponsors by signing on to H.J. Res. 80, which calls for “limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to a certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain,” originally introduced by Rep. James McGovern (D-MA). The resolution limits the proposed arms sale, requiring the Secretary of State to “certify to the ...

On Thursday, the Senate sent President Barack Obama a package of three spending bills, which includes a provision that keeps the government funded through Dec. 16. The bill was approved over the objections of mostly conservative Members who charged the measure was too costly, contains three appropriations bills: "the Commerce, Justice and science appropriations bill; the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill; and the Agriculture, rural development, and Food and ...

Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), John McCain (R-AZ), and John Kerry (D-MA) introduced S. Res. 316 "expressing the sense of the Senate regarding Tunisia's peaceful Jasmine Revolution." The resolution "congratulates the people of Tunisia for holding, on October 23, 2011, the first competitive, multi-party democratic elections since the outbreak of popular revolutions throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011." The Constituent Assembly elections were praised as being "free, fair, ...

On Wednesday, the subcommittee on international operations and organizations and the human rights, democracy, and global women’s issues subcommittee on near Eastern and South and central Asian affairs held a panel discussion titled “Women and the Arab Spring.” The first panel included Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the United States Department of State, and Dr. Tamara Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and Deputy Special ...

Two new cosponsors have been added to H.J. Res. 80, which calls for “limiting the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to a certain proposed sale of defense articles and defense services to the Kingdom of Bahrain." The two cosponsors added are Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA). Last week, two additional cosponsors were added to the resolution. This comes as Bahraini security forces used tear gas and armored vehicles ...