and eritrea. i urge my colleagues to vote no. the royce amendment expresses the sense of congress that the secretary of state should designate eritrea a state sponsor of terrorism and that the u.n. security council should impose sanctions against eritrea. i urge you to vote against this amendment r the following reasons. first, some of the assertions made in the amendment are factually wrong and dated. second, the g.o. politics and the dynamics and interstate rivalries in the horn of africa cannot be addressed properly without concerted diplomatic engagement. declaring eritrea a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing international sanctions would do nothing to further our diplomatic aims and would impose further hardship on the people who are struggling to survive on a daily basis. clearly while mr. royce's amendment lays out a long list of reasons why he feels eritrea should be placed on the state sponsor of terrorist list, the proposed amendment does not recognize the diplomatic efforts currently going underway by the state de

plainly, it is state policy of eritrea to support international terrorism. the u.n. security council made similar statements saying their destructive role in the horn. so have many neighboring countries. and so it is time that eritrea should be named a state sponsor of terrorism. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? mr. payne: i claim the time in opposition. the chair: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. payne: the foreign relations authorization act, which the royce amendment would designate eritrea the state sponsor of terrorism and call on the united nations security council to impose sanctions against eritrea i strongly oppose. while i certainly respect my esteemed colleague from california, ed royce, who served as an excellent chairman of the subcommittee on africa for several years and we worked closely together on many issues and i have a great deal of

and a key instigator of this violence has been the government of eritrea. as the amendment indicates, u.n. report after u.n. report cites eritrea for providing arms and military training to members of the that back and that's an al qaeda-linked group that has been designated by the united states as a foreign terrorist organization. mr. chairman, if you take a look at this picture, which appeared in a u.n. report, this is the actual shabob fighter who shot down a cargo plane with that shoulder-fired missile supplied by eritrea. and the reason we know that is this is the propaganda footage used by this al qaeda-linked organization in order to try to recruit fighters to their goal, and they showed the footage of the successful attack on the cargo plane. now, what if that had been a civilian jetliner? how many lives would have been lost? indeed, our f.b.i. is greatly concerned about somali americans who have gone missing from american cities. they are worried that they have gone to somalia and are linking up with these terrorist groups. and it is eritrea that i

the offending countries tend to be about eight countries, china, india, vietnam, laos, eritrea and i'm probably neglecting one or two, but there are some that have valid removal orders against them and should be removed. i thank the gentleman from california for working with us to provide an amendment. it sends a very strong message that it is unacceptable that we have to expend our limited resources to hold people that should have been returned. i urge adoption of the castle-dent amendment. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. berman: no further speakers. i yield back. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from delaware. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is goad to. pursuant to the order of the house of today, it is now in order to consider amendment number 17 printed in part c of house report 111-143. for what purpose does the gentleman from utah rise? mr. matheson: i have an amendment at the desk. the clerk: amendment number 17 printed in part c of house report 111-143 offer