[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 96 (Tuesday, June 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H5781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1430
                        DEEP CUTS NEEDED IN AID

  (Mr. BURTON of Indiana asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 2 minutes and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, last week I offered an amendment 
to the foreign aid bill to cut the Agency for International 
Development's operating expenses by $69 million from the Committee on 
International Relations recommendation of $465 million. The committee 
cut the administration's request by just 10 percent. My amendment would 
have cut the administration's request by 23 percent from what AID 
received in 1995.
  Unbelievably, that amendment was defeated. Those who opposed it said 
AID would not be able to economize and prioritize under such a reduced 
budget and would have to close down.
  That is just hogwash, Mr. Speaker. If congressional committees can 
reduce their staffs by 30 percent and the General Accounting Office can 
reduce its staff by 15 percent, then AID, the most notorious abuser of 
taxpayers' dollars, can cut its operating expenses by 23 percent.
  Since 1985, AID's program costs have gone down by 23 percent, yet 
their operating expenses, even though they have had their program costs 
go down, their operating expenses have increased by 41 percent.
  AID should have to tighten its belt just like everybody else in this 
country and Government. Listen to what Sally Shelton, a senior staffer 
at AID, said in a message she sent to the AID's field offices:

       Larry Byrne, the Assistant Director of AID, announced that 
     AID was 62 percent through this fiscal year, and we have only 
     spent 38 percent of the dollar volume of procurement actions 
     completed. We need to do $1.9 billion in additional spending 
     in the next five months. There are large pockets of money in 
     the field, so let's get moving.

  In essence what they are saying is they want to blow $1.9 billion as 
quickly as possible because they are two-thirds of the way through the 
year and they have only spent one-third of the money.
  AID is on a spending orgy. It needs to be stopped and I call on my 
colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to do the right thing and 
make deeper cuts in AID.

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