Cedric Richmond on Foreign Policy

Rated 0 by AAI, indicating a mixed Arab/Palestine voting record.

The Arab American Institute has compiled a Scorecard to catalogue the voting record of the 112th Congress on issues of importance to the Arab American community. For the House, we included 15 items: two bills on the Arab Spring, five bills and one letter on Palestine, two bills on Lebanon, three bills and a letter regarding civil liberties, and two bills on immigration.

1. H.Res. 88 (+): supporting democratic aspirations in Egypt
2. H.R. 2643 (+): penalizing the Bahraini government for attacking medical personnel
3. H.R. 1006 (-): the Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act
4. H.R. 1501 (-): withholding US contributions until the UN retracts accusations of Israeli war crimes.
5. H.Res. 268 (-): opposing any unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state
6. H.R. 2457 (-): prohibiting any US government document from referring to "Palestine"
7. H.R. 2829 (-): defunding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The bill's 141 co-sponsors receive a (-).
8. 8. (+). Rep. David Price (D-NC) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) issued a letter titled "Support Palestinian Aid and Israel's Security," in which they call upon Congress to continue aid to the Palestinian Authority.
9. H.R. 2215 (*) "to ensure that United States taxpayer dollars are not used to fund terrorist entities in Lebanon
10. H.R. 996 (+): to raise awareness of the use of cluster munitions where civilians are present
11. H.R. 140 (-): the "Birthright Citizenship Act, to eliminate "anchor babies" by changing the 14th Amendment.
12. H. Res. 283 (+): to counter violence and discrimination against Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian communities
13. H.R. 1805 (-): authorizing an extension of the USA PATRIOT Act until 2013, and amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
14. H.R. 1842 (+): the DREAM Act to protect undocumented minors pursuing higher education.
15. H.R. 1932 (-): the Keep our Communities Safe Act for greater power to detain undocumented immigrants.

$500M and 3,000 troops to Africa to fight Ebola.

Congressional Summary:

The current outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia is an international health crisis and is the most widespread outbreak of the disease ever recorded.

• RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives--
• calls on the international community to immediately provide additional resources to develop the capacity of affected nations to address current and future public health crises;
• requests that the US work in a coordinated capacity to develop a unified global health security plan to adequately respond to disease outbreaks globally;
• calls upon the US to work with international health authorities to assist endemic nations in the fielding of medical countermeasures.

Amid dire warnings from medical professionals and frantic calls from Congress for greater US intervention, Pres. Obama said he'll deploy 3,000 American troops to combat an African Ebola outbreak that he says is "spiraling out of control."

The announcement comes as the Ebola death toll officially has reached 2,400, though specialists say underreporting in affected nations means the true numbers likely are much higher.

The US effort will be funded by $500 million in overseas contingency funding that the Pentagon wants to redirect to humanitarian missions. Specifically, the mission will include the training of as many as 500 new doctors and health care workers each week; the construction of at least 17 health care facilities in the region; the establishment of a joint command center in Monrovia, Liberia; and the distribution of home health-care kits in affected areas.

Others blasted the administration for taking a bite out of the Pentagon budget. "You can't have it both ways. You can't slash our defense budget on one hand, while expecting our military to do it on the other," said Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Trump harmed US interest by delaying military aid to Ukraine.

The [Congressional report on Impeachment] examines the facts underlying the first charge against Pres. Trump: abuse of power. On July 25, 2019, when he spoke by telephone to Pres. Zelensky of Ukraine, Pres.Trump asked Pres. Zelensky to "do us a favor, though." He asked Ukraine to announce two bogus investigations: one into former Vice President Joseph Biden, then his leading opponent in the 2020 election, and another to advance a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, attacked our elections in 2016. One investigation was designed to help him gain an advantage in the 2020 election. The other was intended to help Pres. Trump conceal the truth about the 2016 election. Neither investigation was supported by the evidence or premised on any legitimate national security or foreign policy interest. After the call with Pres. Zelensky, Pres. Trump ratcheted up the pressure. He continued to dangle the offer of the Oval Office meeting and to withhold the $391 million in military aid.

To the founding generation, abuse of power was a specific, well-defined offense. It occurs when a President exercises the powers of his office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring the national interest. The evidence shows that Pres. Trump leveraged his office to pressure Ukraine for a personal favor.

This unquestionably constitutes an impeachable offense, but the first article of impeachment also identifies two aggravating factors. When Pres. Trump asked Pres. Zelensky for a favor, he did so at the expense of both our national security--America has a vital national security interest in countering Russian aggression--and our election integrity--American democracy above all rests upon elections that are free and fair. When the President demands that a foreign government announce investigations targeting his domestic political rival, he corrupts our elections. To the Founders, this kind of corruption was especially pernicious, and plainly merited impeachment.