[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             AID TO RUSSIA

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, today the House is going to debate the 
foreign operations appropriation bill. During the debate on this bill I 
think we should work to spend this money wisely and responsibly. While 
the bill today is better than in past years, many of us have been 
concerned about the spending that has gone into foreign aid in the 
past, particularly aid directed at the former Soviet Union.
  Mr. Speaker, we have given the former Soviet Union billions of 
dollars in foreign aid and wonder how wisely this has been spent. I am 
convinced that much of it has not been spent wisely at all. That is 
because between 50 and 90 percent of the money in these aid packages 
has not reached the pockets of one single pro-democracy, pro-market, 
pro-reform Russian.
  Instead, much of the money has been found in the pockets of 
consultants right here in the beltway, the ``beltway bandits,'' and 
much of the rest of it has just disappeared into the former Soviet 
Union without any real accounting of where it went or how it was being 
spent. Too much of it has been given to consultants, too much of it has 
disappeared, too little of it has gone to solid pro-democracy reformers 
in Russia.
  Therefore, my colleagues, let us look at this Russian section of the 
foreign aid bill very carefully today.


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