Philly Youth Football League Upholds Ban On Girls Just As First Woman Will Participate In NFL Scouting Combine

Caroline Pla (10) with teammates

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Catholic Youth Organization banned 11-year-old Caroline Pla from playing in a boy’s football league earlier this year, even though she had played in the same league for more than two years and had been voted onto the league’s all-star team after the 2012 season. Last week, the CYO reaffirmed that decision, upholding its ban on female participants in grades 5 through 8.

The original ban was about safety, the CYO explained then, even if there were no indications that Pla was in any more danger than any of the 11-year-old boys playing football. When they upheld the ban, the reasoning shifted to fears of “inappropriate contact” between male and female players, even though neither Pla nor her family had ever given thought to such an issue before.

At nearly the same time, a football league far larger than the Catholic Youth Organization took a step in the opposite direction. In 2012, the National Football League formally instituted a rule allowing women to participate in its league, and next week, the annual regional scouting combines for amateur players will feature its first female participant.

Lauren Silberman, a 28-year-old former college club soccer player, is attending a regional combine with the hope of becoming the first woman to play in the NFL. The odds that Silberman, a kicker, will make a team are longer-than-long, but that doesn’t matter: the NFL provided a path for women to participate, and for the first time, one will. There are more than 1,600 girls playing on boys’ high school football teams, and multiple women have played college football, so Silberman almost surely won’t be the last woman to go out for the team.

But these stories aren’t as much about football and making the team as they are about just having the chance to play. Women now enjoy far more access to sports than they did 40 years ago, when Title IX became law, but female participation still doesn’t match that of men. Neither does funding, even though sports participation has substantial health, education, and economic benefits for the women and girls who participate. It’s wonderful that the NFL is expanding access to women, but those efforts are undermined when youth leagues like the CYO, where there are more girls who want to play and fewer who have access, refuse to let the Caroline Plas of the world play the games they love.

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WEEKLY ADDRESS: Congress Must Act Now to Stop the Sequester

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

WASHINGTON, DC—President Obama used this week’s address to urge Congress to stop the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security—called the sequester—from taking effect on March 1st.  The President and Congressional Democrats have already put forward solutions to avoid these cuts and reduce the deficit in a balanced way, and now it’s time for Congressional Republicans to compromise by closing some loopholes that protect the wealthiest Americans so that we can reduce the deficit in a balanced way and create jobs for the middle class. 

The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, February 23, 2013.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
The White House
February 23, 2013

Hi, everybody.  Our top priority as a country right now should be doing everything we can to grow our economy and create good, middle class jobs. 

And yet, less than one week from now, Congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts that will do the exact opposite.  They will slow our economy.  They will eliminate good jobs.  They will leave many families who are already stretched to the limit scrambling to figure out what to do. 

But here’s the thing: these cuts don’t have to happen.  Congress can turn them off anytime with just a little compromise.  They can pass a balanced plan for deficit reduction.  They can cut spending in a smart way, and close wasteful tax loopholes for the well-off and well-connected. 

Unfortunately, it appears that Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of compromising – instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans – they would rather let these cuts fall squarely on the middle class.

Here’s what that choice means.  Once these cuts take effect, thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off, and tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.  Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, causing delays across the country.  Even President Bush’s director of the National Institutes of Health says these cuts will set back medical science for a generation.

Already, the threat of these cuts has forced the Navy to delay the deployment of an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf – affecting our ability to respond to threats in an unstable part of the world.  And just this week, the Pentagon announced that if these cuts go through, almost 800,000 defense employees – the equivalent of every person in Miami and Cleveland combined – will be forced to take unpaid leave. 

That’s what this choice means.  Are Republicans in Congress really willing to let these cuts fall on our kids’ schools and mental health care just to protect tax loopholes for corporate jet owners?  Are they really willing to slash military health care and the border patrol just because they refuse to eliminate tax breaks for big oil companies?  Are they seriously prepared to inflict more pain on the middle class because they refuse to ask anything more of those at the very top? 

These are the questions Republicans in Congress need to ask themselves.  And I’m hopeful they’ll change their minds.  Because the American people have worked too hard for too long to see everything they’ve built undone by partisan recklessness in Washington. 

I believe we should work together to build on the more than $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction we’ve already achieved.  But I believe we should do it in a balanced way – with smart spending cuts, entitlement reform, and tax reform. That’s my plan.  It's got tough cuts, tough reforms, and asks more of the wealthiest Americans. It's on the White House website for everyone to see.  And it requires Democrats and Republicans to meet half way to resolve the problem.  That’s what the American people expect. And that’s what you deserve.

We just need Republicans in Washington to come around.  Because we need their help to finish the job of reducing our deficit in a smart way that doesn’t hurt our economy or our people.  After all, as we learned in the 1990s, nothing shrinks the deficit faster than a growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs.  That has to be our driving focus.  That has to be our North Star.  Making America a magnet for good jobs.  Equipping our people with the skills required to fill those jobs.  Making sure your hard work leads to a decent living.  That’s what this city should be focused on like a laser.  And I’m going to keep pushing folks here to remember that. 

Thanks.

President Obama urges Congress to stop the sequester -- the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security from taking effect on March 1.

Have questions about what the sequester is, and why American famillies and our national economy face the threat of harmful budget cuts? Check out this explainer for some background.

In an effort to encourage transparency and participation in government, we invite you to take part in developing our Open Government self-assessment report.

view all related blog posts

View the original article here

Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Abe of Japan After Bilateral Meeting

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For Immediate Release February 22, 2013 Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Abe of Japan After Bilateral Meeting Oval Office

1:30 P.M. EST
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, I want to extend a warm welcome to Prime Minister Abe and congratulate him on his victory and his leadership of Japan.
 
Obviously, Japan is one of our closest allies, and the U.S.-Japan alliance is the central foundation for our regional security and so much of what we do in the Pacific region.  And that friendship extends not just between our governments but also between our peoples.
 
Prime Minister Abe himself is no stranger to the United States.  I think he and I studied in California around the same time, and this is not his first visit to the Oval Office.  So we’re looking forward to building a very strong working relationship on a whole range of issues.
 
We had close consultations on a wide range of security issues, in particular our concerns about the provocative actions that have been taken in North Korea and our determination to take strong actions in response. 
 
We also discussed a wide range of multilateral issues, and I expressed my appreciation for the support Japan has provided to our efforts in Afghanistan, our efforts to resolve the nuclear issue in Iran, and we expressed mutual condolences around the loss of life at the BP plant in Algeria and pledged that this would spur greater counterterrorism cooperation.
 
After this brief session with the press, we’ll have an opportunity to extend these discussions over lunch, and we’ll have a chance to talk about the close economic cooperation between our two countries. 
 
And I know that Prime Minister Abe and I both agree that our number-one priority has to be making sure that we are increasing growth and making sure that people have the opportunity to prosper if they're willing to work hard in both our countries.  And so we’ll be talking about a host of issues that -- and steps that we can take in our respective countries to encourage the kind of trade, expanded commerce, and robust growth that will lead to greater opportunity for both the United States and Japan.
 
Mr. Prime Minister, welcome.  And please extend our warmest wishes to the people of Japan, and you can rest assured that you will have a strong partner in the United States throughout your tenure as Prime Minister.
 
PRIME MINISTER ABE:  (As interpreted.)  Mr. President, you already gave a very detailed briefing of the content of our briefing so there’s nothing for me to add, but I would like to make some additional remarks.
 
First of all, I would like to thank President Obama for creating this opportunity to have a summit meeting between Japan and the United States at a very busy time when his second term is beginning.
 
I think today’s -- one big theme in our meeting today was for us to discuss in which direction we would be strengthening the alliance between Japan and the United States.  And we touched upon many issues that we have to deal with in that regard.
 
And as a result of our discussion, we were able to share our understanding on not just concrete policy but on the direction to which our alliance is headed.  I think I can declare with confidence that the trust and the bond in our alliance is back.
 
And when we look at the security environment in the Asia Pacific, it’s becoming more and more difficult.  And we need to create an order in this region based on cooperation between our two countries to secure the freedom of the seas and to secure a region which is governed based on laws, not on force.

And we just cannot tolerate the actions of North Korea, such as launching missiles and conducting nuclear tests.  So we agreed that we would cooperate with each other in dealing resolutely with North Korea.  And I also explained to Mr. President the abduction issue by North Korea, and the President understood my explanation and expressed his support.
 
We intend to continue to strengthen our alliance, and by doing so, secure our national interest and make this world a better place.
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Go ahead.
 
Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  We’re one week from the sequester deadline.  I’m wondering, at this point, if you think those cuts going into effect are inevitable, and what you’re telling the Prime Minister and other world leaders about the impact that that would have on the global economy.
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, I never think that anything is inevitable.  We always have the opportunity to make the right decisions.  And I’ve been very clear that these kinds of arbitrary, automatic cuts would have an adverse impact on families, on teachers, on parents who are reliant on Head Start programs, on our military readiness, on mental health services, on medical research.  This is not a smart way for us to reduce the deficit.
 
I’ve also been very clear that there’s an alternative, which is for us to take the kind of balanced approach that I’ve presented, where we have more strategic cuts on programs we don’t need and we close some tax loopholes that are taken advantage of only by the well-connected and the well-off.  By the way, that’s what the majority of the American people prefer.
 
So I will continue to have conversations with members of Congress, both while they’re gone and when they get back next week.  My hope is, is that we can see a different course taken by Congress.  This should be a no-brainer.  And let me just point out that the overall impact of the economy will be to slow down the recovery.  And not only may there end up being direct job loss, but because the economy is softer, it also means that we’re not going to be driving down unemployment as quickly as we should.
 
So with respect to world leaders, I think that unlike issues like the debt ceiling, the sequester going into effect will not threaten the world financial system.  It's not like the equivalent of the U.S. defaulting on its obligations.  What it does mean, though, is that if the U.S. is growing slower, then other countries grow slower because we continue to be a central engine in world economic growth.  So I don't think anybody would like to see this outcome.
 
And particularly when we're poised to grow rapidly as housing comes back and we're starting to see real signs of the recovery taking root, it's the wrong prescription.  But, ultimately, I don't need to persuade world leaders of that.  They know that.  I've got to persuade members of Congress, and that can be harder sometimes.
 
Q    Even if you think a deal -- or even if you think averting the cuts is not inevitable, do you see any realistic sign of being able to reach a deal over the next week?
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Hope springs eternal.  And I will just keep on making my case not only to Congress, but more importantly the American people to take a smart approach to deficit reduction and do it in a way that doesn’t endanger our economy and endanger jobs. 
 
I just realized I didn't have a translation of that.  It was sort of a domestic question.  My suggestion would be why don't we just go ahead and direct the next question to Prime Minister Abe.  That one will be translated. 
 
Q    Mr. Prime Minister, I would like to ask what you discussed with President Obama about actions by North Korea, such as the launching of missiles and a nuclear test.  And also, the provocative actions that China is taking vis-à-vis the Senkaku Islands.  And also, on what actions and measures you have discussed to strengthen the alliance between Japan and the United States at a time when the security environment in the region is deteriorating.  What kind of concrete measures did you discuss with the President to strengthen our alliance?
 
PRIME MINISTER ABE:  (As interpreted.)  On North Korea, an important thing we discussed, we agreed that it was important for Japan and the United States to not provide awards to North Korea for their actions such as launching missiles and conducting nuclear tests -- that's number one. 
 
And, number two, we agreed that we would cooperate so that a resolution, including sanctions, would be adopted in the U.N.  We also discussed additional sanctions, for example, financial sanctions, and we agreed to continue cooperating in that regard as well. 
 
And then, we also talked about the importance of cooperating with other countries, especially Japan, the U.S. and Korea in dealing with the issue of North Korea.
 
Concerning the South China Sea and the Senkaku Islands, we agree that the very existence of the Japan-U.S. alliance is a stabilizing factor, which contributes to peace and stability of the region.  We agreed that we would stay in close coordination with each other in dealing with such issues and other issues, and a wide range of issues that we are faced with in this region.  So we will continue to coordinate in dealing with such issues based on the Japan-U.S. alliance.
 
And I also explained that we have always been dealing with this issue, the Senkaku issue, in a calm manner.  We will continue to do so and we have always done so. 
 
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you, everybody.
 
END
1:50 P.M. EST

Blog posts on this issue February 23, 2013 5:35 AM ESTWeekly Address: Congress Must Act Now to Stop the Sequester

President Obama urges Congress to stop the sequester -- the harmful automatic cuts that threaten thousands of jobs and affect our national security from taking effect on March 1.

February 22, 2013 6:30 PM ESTWhat Is the Sequester?

Have questions about what the sequester is, and why American famillies and our national economy face the threat of harmful budget cuts? Check out this explainer for some background.

February 22, 2013 5:54 PM ESTFulfilling our Commitment to Open Government

In an effort to encourage transparency and participation in government, we invite you to take part in developing our Open Government self-assessment report.

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DAY'S END ROUNDUP

FROM THE BLOGS:

On Washington's birthday, a lesson in self-government
The Foundry's Matt Grinney makes a plea for less government in the name of President George Washington.??

Just how much gas are we actually sitting on?
Policy Shop's Mijin Cha argues that actually obtaining shale gas is very complicated and time-consuming even if a large supply of it is available.??

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan, unless you can't, in which case we'll see
John Hayward discusses in Human Events Rep. Eliot Engel's (D-N.Y.) response when he heard a Congressional Budget Office report that projected millions of Americans would lose their healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act.

Why Black voters are critical for the GOP
The American Prospect's Jamelle Bouie argues that it may be strategically smarter for Republicans to focus their short-term outreach efforts on African-Americans rather than Hispanics.??

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House warns sequester will produce chaos at nation's airports.
The Hill's Keith Laing reports that sequester cuts could lead to major flight delays.??

GOP lawmakers call on Obama, Holder to enforce gun laws
The Hill's Jordy Yager reports on a letter both President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder received calling for stricter enforcement of current gun laws amidst talk of increased gun control.

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Meet The Congressmen Who Favor A Broken Plane Over Saving The Economy

As mandatory budget cuts loom, a group of Congressional Republicans has cheered the coming reductions in federal spending — so long as federal funding is maintained for a plane that is years behind schedule and doesn’t fly, that is.

The Department of Defense announced on Friday afternoon that it has grounded the entire fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in light of an issue with its engine. Grounding the fleet, in all three of its variations, is just the latest in a slew of setbacks to the troubled acquisition program. Produced by Lockheed Martin to the tune of $100 million per plane, the total cost of the project so far has climbed over $400 billion, making it the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history. By contrast, the Manhattan Project — which created the nuclear weapon from scratch — cost about $55 billion in today’s dollars.

The F-35 project as a whole is currently at least six years behind schedule, slated for delivery in 2015 at the earliest. Beginning on March 1, the Defense Department budget is poised to fall under the effect of mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, cutting $1 trillion from the budget in military and domestic spending over the next ten years.

Enter the Joint Strike Fighter Caucus.

Formed in 2011, as talks to avoid sequestration were first ongoing, 49 members of the House of Representatives — hailing from both parties — signed on to protect the F-35. Several of the Republican members of the JSF Caucus, however, are among the most ardent supporters of slashing federal funding currently in Congress. Among their ranks are Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), each of whom have called for deep reductions to programs that actually work.

Broun, in a 2012 interview with Politico, estimated that he had proposed $4 billion in cuts in the House Science, Technology, and Commerce committee alone. Franks has made clear that he believes the only way to shrink the government “is to choke the monster.” Poe has compared Congress to “addicts” when it comes to spending, proposing a 12 step program to break the habit as he argued against the fiscal cliff deal.

While several Republicans have favored raising revenues to help offset sequestration, none of the Republicans listed above have joined in. Instead, the Representatives listed above all voted “aye” on a bill to replace the defense cuts in sequestration entirely with cuts on the domestic side. Cuts to defense can be made certainly made to military spending — if done smartly — making voting to protect a plane that doesn’t work in opposition to providing health care to millions of Americans near unconscionable.

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13 GOP Pennsylvania Senators Introduce New Plan To Rig The Electoral College For Republicans

Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Domini Pileggi (R)

Earlier this year, Republican National Committee Chair urged Republican lawmakers in states “that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red” — i.e. blue states with Republican legislatures and governors — to enact a plan rigging the Electoral College so that it would be almost impossible for a Democrat to win the White House. Under these plans, a large chunk of blue state electoral votes would be allocated to the Republican candidate even if the Democratic presidential candidate won the state as a whole. Although some state lawmakers in key blue states such as Wisconsin or Michigan endorsed versions of this plan, the election rigging plans were widely derided as exactly what they are — cheating — and soon, even top Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) or Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell wanted nothing to do with election rigging. The plans to rig the Electoral College appeared dead.

Except, that is, for Pennsylvania.

Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) was one of the earliest supporters of rigging the Electoral College, backing a plan to do so as early as 2011. Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi was one of the leading supporters of election-rigging the and late this week, he — along with a dozen other co-sponsors — introduced a new plan to rig the Electoral College votes in his blue state of Pennsylvania. Under this legislation, a large chunk of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes would be awarded to the Republican candidate even though Pennsylvania is a solid blue state that has supported the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1992.

Of course, while the Republican election-rigging plan calls for blue states to give away electoral votes to Republicans, red states like Texas or South Carolina will continue to award 100 percent of their electors to the Republican:

The 13 co-sponsors on Pileggi’s bill amount to exactly half of the 26 votes he needs to pass the bill through the state senate. According to state Rep. Mike Sturla (D-PA), now that Pileggi has introduced his election-rigging plan, Republicans could conceivably ram it through both houses of the state legislature and have it on Corbett’s desk in just four days.

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Michelle Obama dismisses 2016 speculation during 'Let's Move' TV tour

Michelle Obama laughingly dismissed speculation that she could run on a two-woman ticket with Hillary Clinton in 2016 during her appearance on the “Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon” Friday night.

The popular first lady – two-thirds of Americans have a favorable view of her – is on a TV tour to promote the third anniversary of her “Let's Move” initiative to combat childhood obesity. She told the comedian that she has other ambitions than the presidency.

"You know, I have my eye actually on another job,” she told Fallon. “And I hear that when Jay Leno retires that 'The Tonight Show' position is going to open and I'm thinking about putting my hat in the ring.”

During the show, Obama also participated in a comic dance routine - “Evolution of Mom Dancing” - with Fallon, who was dressed as a woman.

The TV appearance is one of several planned over the next week, the Associated Press reports, including segments to run Tuesday on ABC's “Good Morning America” and Thursday on “The Dr. Oz Show.” She is scheduled to travel to Mississippi, Missouri and her home town of Chicago on a two-day tour starting next Wednesday.

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, almost 18 percent of children between the ages of six and 11 were considered obese – up from 7 percent in 1980.

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Oklahoma May Deny Women Affordable Birth Control Because It ‘Poisons Their Bodies’

Oklahoma already prevents women from using their insurance plans to help cover abortion services, but Republicans aren’t stopping there. One state lawmaker wants to continue stripping insurance coverage for reproductive health services, advancing a measure that would allow employers to refuse to cover birth control for any reason — based solely on the fact that one of his constituents believes it “poisons women’s bodies.”

Under State Sen. Clark Jolley (R)’s measure, “no employer shall be required to provide or pay for any benefit or service related to abortion or contraception through the provision of health insurance to his or her employees.” According to the Tulsa World, Jolley’s inspiration for his bill came from one of his male constituents who is morally opposed to birth control, and wanted to find a small group insurance plan for himself and his family that didn’t include coverage for those services:

Jolley said the measure is the result of a request from a constituent, Dr. Dominic Pedulla, an Oklahoma City cardiologist who describes himself as a natural family planning medical consultant and women’s health researcher. [...]

Women are worse off with contraception because it suppresses and disables who they are, Pedulla said.

“Part of their identity is the potential to be a mother,” Pedulla said. “They are being asked to suppress and radically contradict part of their own identity, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they are being asked to poison their bodies.”

The bill has already cleared a Senate Health committee and now makes it way to Oklahoma’s full Senate. It is unlikely that either Jolley and Pedulla themselves rely on insurance coverage for hormonal contraceptive services — but if the measure becomes law, the two men could limit the health insurance options for the nearly two million women who live in Oklahoma.

Of course, contraception does not actually poison women. The FDA approved the first oral birth control pill in 1960, and that type of contraception is so safe that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends making it available without a prescription, as it is in most other countries around the world. Furthermore, considering that over 99 percent of women of reproductive age have used some form of birth control, the Oklahoma women who rely on insurance coverage for their contraception would likely disagree with Pedulla’s assertion that it “suppresses and radically contradicts part of their own identity.”

In reality, access to affordable birth control is a critical economic issue for women. When women have control over their reproductive choices, it allows them to achieve economic goals like completing their education, becoming financially independent, or keeping a job. But birth control can carry high out-of-pocket costs, and over half of young women say they haven’t used their contraceptive method as directed because of cost prohibitions. Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pushed measures to allow employers to drop coverage for birth control.

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Wind, Solar, Biomass Provide All New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity In January 2013

This represents a nearly three-fold increase in new renewable energy generating capacity compared to the same month in 2012 when wind, solar, and biomass provided 431 MW of new capacity.

In January 2013, wind accounted for the largest share of the new capacity with six new “units” providing 958 MW followed by 16 units of solar (267 MW), and 6 units of biomass (6 MW). No new generating capacity was reported for any fossil fuel (i.e., natural gas, coal, oil) or nuclear power sources.

Renewable sources now account for 15.66 percent of total installed U.S. operating generating capacity: hydro – 8.50 percent, wind – 5.17 percent, biomass – 1.29 percent, solar – 0.38 percent, and geothermal – 0.32 percent.*

By comparison, oil accounts for 3.54% of total operating generating capacity, nuclear for 9.23 percent, coal for 29.04 percent, and natural gas for 42.37 percent.

Once again, renewable energy sources have dominated the new electrical generation market. And once again, their rapid expansion demonstrates that the U.S. can meet its future energy needs without resorting to dirtier sources such as nuclear power or the Keystone XL pipeline.

*Note: Generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Actual net electrical generation from renewable energy sources in the United States now totals about 13% according to data provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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Top House Democrat To Introduce Bill Authorizing Arms To Syrian Rebels

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Sunday that he plans to introduce legislation to allow the Obama administration to transfer weapons to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Reporting from the region, ABC’s Terry Moran said on the network’s Sunday program “This Week” that the U.S. faces a choice, either arm the rebels or work with Russia, and perhaps Assad himself, on a potential peace deal between the two warring factions. When asked about that choice, Engel said he thinks “it’s time” to allow President Obama to provide the rebels with direct military assistance:

TERRY MORAN: The United States has a choice: arm the rebels, engage even more deeply in what is becoming a chaotic and dangerous war to this region or broker a peace, probably with Russia, give the Syrian people an opportunity to determine their future and at least in the first stages, Bashar Assad is likely to be part of that process.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Engel is that the choice?

ENGEL: I think it’s the choice and I will be introducing legislation to allow the President to arm the rebels. I think it’s time to do that. I think the Free Syria Army needs help. We know who they are and I think it’s time we make that move.

Watch the clip:

The United States has been providing training and logistics and communications assistance to the rebels but thus far, the Obama administration has been reluctant to provide arms, instead preferring to allow other regional allies to send weapons to the rebels fighting Assad. But with recent revelations that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey supported a plan to arm the rebels, and now with the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to introduce legislation backing that plan, momentum may be gaining to persuade the Obama administration to shift course.

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