[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 59 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4013-H4014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESIDENT CLINTON GOES TO HAITI

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I come to the floor this 
afternoon to talk about President Clinton and his upcoming trip to 
Haiti. President Clinton is going to Haiti to celebrate what I consider 
a policy of failure.
  What really concerns me, and I am now a member of the Subcommittee on 
National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice of the 
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, is the disastrous course 
this administration has taken in Haiti and the President plans to go to 
Haiti to celebrate.
  Let me tell you that just within the last few weeks, I had the 
opportunity, with Mr. Burton, to go to Haiti and to review what is 
going on there and meet with President Aristide. And let me say to my 
colleagues in the House that what I saw is frightening. It is the 
result, really, of a policy that has been out of sync from the very 
beginning.
  Let me review for you just a moment where we have been and how we got 
to this situation.
  First of all, that we failed to enforce and this administration 
failed to enforce international law. One of the sorriest days in the 
history of this Nation was when the SS Harlem sailed out of the Port-
au-Prince harbor and failed to have Haiti comply with international 
law. Another failure of this administration.
  Then what did we do? We imposed sanctions that killed more than 
60,000 jobs in that nation that fed hundreds of thousands of people and 
destroyed permanently those jobs and drove that country and that 
poorest nation in our Western Hemisphere into the ground.
  What is worse than killing the economy, we also allowed during that 
period of time for the opposition in Haiti to be killed. They murdered 
and tortured and destroyed any potential future leadership for this 
Nation.
  Next, we sent our troops there. And what has happened now is a cost 
to the U.S. taxpayer of billions of dollars. And, in the meantime, 
actually even before we sent our troops there, we had incredible costs 
to my State, the State of Florida, in a wave of refuges that landed 
there. But then we sent our troops, and we have had to pay twice for 
our troops, both for our troops and in a few more days for the U.N. 
peacekeeping troops when part of our troops are removed. So we have 
paid for a policy of failure.
  Now, that is only the beginning of it. My concern is, what do we do 
from here as the President marches down there and we leave 2,000 of our 
troops? What is going to happen?
  You know, I had a chance to talk to our commanders. I had a chance to 
talk to our leaders, our Ambassador and our AID officials about what is 
going on. Even the young men and women who served, and I met with those 
individuals from Florida, said, ``Congressman Mica, there is no plan 
for economic development. Our biggest plan that the United States 
offers is picking up trash in Haiti. That is the job opportunity plan 
that we have in place there. That is the biggest job opportunity, and 
when the money runs out for that program, the program runs out.''
  This is what we have. This is the document that was presented to me 
by AID and the Ambassador, and it is pitiful. It talks about spending 
millions of dollars on feeding stations. They are so proud of
 2,500 feeding stations. It talks about spending millions of dollars on 
elections and local governments.

  And do you know what there is in here? At the bottom of the page, 
there are a few paragraphs about economic development. Well, heaven 
forbid we should spend billions of dollars there and leave this Nation 
without some ability to create jobs and opportunities for the future.
  [[Page H4014]] I submit that this is a policy of disaster, that we 
are making the same mistake in this country, that we have created a 
system of dependence and reliance on social and welfare programs that 
leave people dependent, just like we have done in Haiti and we are 
doing in this Nation. And now we have a President going there to 
celebrate a victory. I tell you that he is going there to celebrate a 
policy of disaster and potential economic disaster.
  So I ask my colleagues to join with me to express concern to the 
administration and other Members of Congress that we do something to 
create jobs and real opportunities not only in Haiti but also this 
country.

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