[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             VINE AND WINE

  (Mrs. SEASTRAND asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. SEASTRAND. Mr. Speaker, over the last 30 years, the Federal 
Government has become far too generous with the taxpayer's money. 
Washington bureaucrats not satisfied with wasting money on domestic 
programs find new and inventive ways to waste it in other countries.
  Here are a few examples of what I am talking about: The International 
Institute for the Unification of Private Law, the International Office 
of Vine and Wine, the Permanent International Association of Road 
Congresses, the Colombo Plan Council for Technical Cooperation, and the 
International Natural Rubber Study Organization.
  All of these programs have two things in common: They are funded by 
the American taxpayer and they need desperately to be unfunded by the 
American taxpayer.
  Mr. Speaker, we realize that the Federal Government cannot continue 
spending money as if there were no tomorrow, and we can no longer 
afford overseas extravagance. It is time to streamline bureaucracy and 
eliminate the proliferation of silly named programs that have no real 
purpose and no real need to exist. The American Overseas Interests Act 
will reduce our monetary aid commitments overseas to one percent of the 
Federal budget, much more in line with what the American people want us 
to do in this Congress.

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