Frank, Lee Commend Bush For Pressuring Sudan

Barney Frank and Barbara Lee rarely agree with President Bush, but the two House Democrats - from Massachusetts and California, respectively - applauded the president Tuesday for vowing to increase economic pressure on Sudan in order to stem violence in the country's Darfur region.

Bush pledged to rachet up economic pressure on select government officials and seek additional United Nations sanctions against the government in Khartoum, while also reaffirming the administration's three-year-old claim that the violence in Darfur has become a genocide.

“The President has taken an important step today in confirming the U.S. view that the ongoing atrocities in Sudan are genocidal," Frank said in a statement. "I welcome the ratcheting up of U.S. economic sanctions against Sudanese leaders responsible for the human rights abuses in Darfur and against Sudanese companies that enable the Khartoum regime to continue its slaughter in Darfur."