[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 20 (Wednesday, February 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1120
               THE FOREIGN AID PACKAGE THAT WOULD NOT DIE

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the administration announced yesterday that, 
because Congress was not acting quickly enough to throw good money 
after bad down that black hole that is the Mexican economy, it has used 
unprecedented Executive authority to extend billions of our taxpayers' 
money to bail out the Mexican peso and the Wall Street speculators who 
invested there without a vote of Congress. The last time Mexico 
devalued its currency was in 1988, just around the time of the 
Presidential election. Before that, Mexico devalued in 1982, again just 
around the time of the Presidential election, and now they did it again 
just after the Presidential election of 1994.
  I say to my colleagues, ``Some would like you to think that using 
Treasury's power to prop up the peso was a temporary fix, but they are 
wrong, This is not a currency problem. It is a problem of continuing 
mismanagement at the highest levels inside an emerging undemocratic 
country. The false security of Mexican oil is an illusion, too. That's 
already been pledged to past debts. If you're outraged like I am, come 
to room 2247 this afternoon, Members of Congress. Let's get the 
administration on the right track for a change.''


                          ____________________