[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TIME TO COME CLEAN ON BAILOUT OF MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hastings of Washington). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, over the last 24-hour period, we have heard a 
litany of reasons in support of what the Clinton administration has 
done in its efforts to prop up the Mexican peso.
  We have heard, for example, that the United States economy will 
suffer irreparable harm if the Mexican economy remains as weak as it 
is.
  We have heard that illegal immigration will explode if the United 
States does not prop up the Mexican peso.
  We have heard intimations that Mexico and other Latin countries will 
be unable to help continue to control certain undesirable activities 
such as drug trafficking and money laundering from and through Latin 
America.
  We have heard that delayed action is worse than no action.
  We have heard that other Central American countries will soon follow 
Mexico unless we act in behalf of Mexico.
  We have heard that an untold number of jobs here in this country will 
be lost and money will be lost here in this country, including from 
perhaps some very important pension funds, if the United States does 
not act and prop up the Mexican peso.
  If in fact, Mr. Speaker, the consequences that would befall the world 
economy and the United States economy were as dire as the 
administration is now saying they are, one might very legitimately ask, 
as I do, where were they when the groundwork was being laid for this 
crisis through either action or inaction on the part of the Mexican 
Government?
  Where were they when we had before the U.S. Congress Committee on 
Banking and Financial Services just 1 short week ago asking the 3 top 
officials from this administration, Secretary Christopher, Secretary 
Rubin, and Chairman Greenspan to justify to us specifically and 
explicitly why at that time the administration was telling us that 
unless congressional action occurred, all of these dire consequences 
would befall.
  We asked, for example, when these gentlemen were before the Banking 
Committee on which I have the honor
 of serving, what guarantees do we have? How will we know and how can 
we assure the American people that Mexico will not default on the loan 
guarantees that this administration was asking us in Congress to 
provide to them through legislation?

  The only thing that these witnesses could tell us was, and I remember 
one witness explicitly stating this, we have a team of the finest 
lawyers in Government and we are sure that they will draft up a 
document that provides us those guarantees.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, that does not leave me satisfied and that does not 
leave my constituents satisfied. They continue to ask some very 
important questions that are deeply troubling to me and to my 
constituents in the 7th District of Georgia.
  What happens with that $20 billion, and many other billions of 
dollars that are now going to directly prop up a foreign currency? If 
and when, as many of us expect, the Mexican Government fails to take 
the steps, the hard steps that are necessary to ensure its continued 
viability and to ensure the rebounding of the peso, what will in fact 
happen to those moneys?
  What will in fact happen, Mr. Speaker, for example, if in some other 
part of the world with regard to some other currency, the U.S. dollar, 
which is the currency that I care about and that the American people 
care about, runs into problems and we go to the Stabilization Fund and 
we find that the cupboard is bare? What then do we tell our 
constituents?
  What do we tell our constituents down the road, Mr. Speaker, when the 
next country comes to us and says,

       Yes, we know you are having to ask your citizens to tighten 
     their belts. We know you in America are having to make tough 
     decisions to cut back governments and cut back guarantees in 
     your own country. But you helped out Mexico. Now you must 
     help us out.

  These are things, Mr. Speaker, that I think the American people are 
legitimately asking of this administration which has yet to deliver to 
us in the Congress an executive order that sets out in black and white 
where it thinks it has the legal statutory authority to do what it did.
  The questions, Mr. Speaker, far outnumber the answers that have been 
forthcoming. I think it is past due time for this administration to 
come forward, to come clean and to provide us the background 
information to let us know why did we get to this situation, what is 
truly happening, and why this action is necessary.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the time to address this very important 
problem for the people of this country.


                          ____________________