State of Rhode Island secondary Archives: on Foreign Policy

Jack Reed: Suspend aid to Egypt while military crushes protestors

REED: Well, the acts of the last few days by the Egyptian military are completely unconscionable and I do believe we have to change our aid. I think also we have to have included in the legislation a national security waiver because we have to give the president not only the responsibility to deal with the government of Egypt, but also the flexibility. And we have to recognize, this is a long-term process. One of the obvious facts of a transition from authoritarian government to democracy, it takes a long time and it's not a straight line. And so, we have to have a policy that expresses our outrage really at the military, but also gives the president the tools to, we hope, engage them. I do believe that we can send a strong signal by suspending aid. The president has already suspended the F-16 transfers.

Jack Reed: Allow in Syrian refugees looking for opportunity

Reed visited in response to a recent announcement by the Trump Administration that it plans to lower the number of refugees the United States would accept next fiscal year to 18,000, the lowest number since 1980. Last year, the administration reduced the cap to 30,000 from 45,000.

Reed opposes the cuts, as well as moves by the administration to give cities and states new powers to refuse to accept refugees.

"People come here looking for opportunity," Reed said. Reed and the advocates said that refugees are put through a rigorous vetting procedure and are in fact "the most vetted population in the U.S."

Mark Zaccaria: American colors don't run, but they have been fading

Seth Magaziner: Our international alliances are as important as ever