[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 74 (Wednesday, June 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6037-S6041]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Gorton, Mr. Wellstone, 
        Ms. Mikulski, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Chafee, Mrs. Boxer, Mrs. 
        Murray, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Kerry, Mr. 
        Robb, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Torricelli, Mr. Levin, Mr. Bumpers, Mr. 
        Johnson, Mr. DeWine, Mr. Kohl, Ms. Collins, Mr. Cleland, and 
        Mr. Moynihan):
  S. 2152. A bill to establish a program to provide credit and other 
assistance for encouraging microenterprises in developing countries, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.


              microcredit for self-sufficiency act of 1998

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce a bill today which is 
cosponsored by at least 20 of my colleagues in the Senate, a bipartisan 
offering on an issue which I came to be familiar with over 10 years 
ago. I traveled to the country of Bangladesh. It is not exactly on the 
itinerary of favorite congressional trips because it is a country 
which, although it is large and very interesting, has had its share of 
misfortune. It seems whenever any natural disaster would strike in the 
world it would stop in Bangladesh. We, of course, conjure an image in 
our mind of people who have suffered through typhoons and tornadoes and 
flooding and all sorts of deprivation. It is a very poor country.
  Then Congressman, the late Mike Synar, and I went to Bangladesh. One 
of the reasons we went was to explore an issue which we had heard a lot 
about. There is an institution created in Bangladesh known as the 
Grameen Bank. Grameen means ``people's bank.'' It is an extraordinary 
institution because it is an unusual bank; it is

[[Page S6038]]

a bank designed to provide very small loans to very poor people. So 
Congressman Synar and I joined with people from the American Embassy 
and got in our four-wheel drive vehicle and drove out from Dakar into 
the countryside until the road ended, and then our four-wheel vehicle 
could go no further and we got out and started hiking a few miles into 
the brush and came upon a tiny little village. In this village we were 
invited to a bank meeting, a meeting of the board of directors of the 
Grameen Bank, in this tiny, obscure, almost nameless Bangladesh 
village. The bank meeting was unlike any meeting of any board of 
directors one would ever imagine.
  Seated in a little shelter were about 30 or 40 women, all dressed in 
brightly colored saris, with a third eye in their foreheads, many of 
them holding babies in a typical Asian squatting position and looking 
up at these visitors who had come to see them.
  Our host, a professor from a university in Bangladesh who was 
familiar with the program, Dr. Huk, introduced us to the women in the 
audience. He said at one point, ``Is there anyone here who has ever 
heard of the United States of America?'' Not one of them had. And here 
we were, these two Congressmen standing before them, looking like 
creatures from some other planet I am sure, wanting to know more about 
this little bank.
  This bank has grown in size and scope in an effort to provide 
microcredit, small loans, to some of the poorest people in the world. 
What does $100 mean to an American? For us, it might be a nice trip 
shopping or a trip to a restaurant. But for a woman living in 
Bangladesh, $100 might mean that she can buy some tools and develop a 
skill and a craft to feed her family; $100 might mean that she can buy 
a milking cow that she can then use, not only to feed her family, but 
to sell the products and to make some money for her future.
  How does this work, that people who are so poor, with literally no 
earthly possessions, can be debtors, can borrow money from a bank? It 
works because the concept is that when they undertake this debt, 
several other villagers will sign up with them, cosign the note, if you 
will, in a guarantee that the payment will be made because, you see, 
the cosigners cannot get a debt of their own until the original debt is 
paid off. So they look very carefully to make sure that the debt is 
repaid on a monthly basis. The payback rate on Grameen Bank is over 95 
percent.
  Why in the world would I raise this question here on the floor of the 
U.S. Senate in the great country that we live in, with all of our 
wealth and opportunity? Because I, frankly, think that this is a model 
that we should encourage and follow around the world. We do not spend 
an extraordinarily great amount of money on foreign aid compared to 
other nations, but we do spend billions of dollars. The bill that I 
introduce suggests that we should take a portion of that money each 
year and dedicate it to microcredit projects, projects like the Grameen 
Bank around the world.

  Many Americans might say, ``Well, Senator, it sounds like a great 
idea, but why should we worry about a woman in Bangladesh?'' One of the 
women in this meeting I attended came up to me afterwards and, with an 
interpreter--she had a baby in her arms --she told me her life story.
  She was 18 years old. The baby she was holding was her third child. 
She told me, quite proudly, that she was not going to have any more 
children. She was practicing birth control. She said, ``My other two 
children are alive.'' Now, that is an amazing statement in the United 
States. You think, ``Well, of course, why would you bring that up?'' 
But in a developing country, it is a very serious concern: Will my baby 
survive? Do I need to have another baby? That is why many of the 
developing countries have such high birth rates.
  She had decided that because of good health techniques, which the 
United States and United Nations had encouraged, that her babies had a 
chance to live, and with the Grameen Bank, she had a chance to improve 
their livelihood. She said, quite proudly, ``I'm going to have a family 
of three and that is all we need and Grameen Bank has really helped to 
make this possible.''
  A tiny loan of $100, a family planning program, some public health 
techniques and this woman is going to limit her family to three. Is 
that important to us in the United States? It is, because in Asia, in 
Africa and around the world, the problem of overpopulation is one that 
is not local or regional, it is a global problem.
  Overpopulation leads to many problems--economic instability, 
political instability, environmental degradation. Look at the nation of 
India today. India is in the headlines because of its recent nuclear 
test, its fears of China and Pakistan. Yet, India is going to be in the 
headlines in a few years because it will be the most populated nation 
in the world. It will pass China. As that teeming population grows and 
creates political pressures, it becomes a concern in the United States.
  I hope we will make modest investments in those foreign aid programs 
that really can improve the quality of life in developing countries and 
can really cope with some of the problems such as overpopulation. 
Microcredit enjoys broad bipartisan support.
  An organization known as RESULTS, which is nationwide but has a very 
significant chapter in Chicago, has encouraged me to introduce this 
legislation, which I am happy to do. There are many people who are 
strong supporters of this. One of them is well known to many of us who 
grew up watching ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show.'' Her name is Valerie 
Harper, also known as Rhoda.
  For some reason, this has become a passion for her, a commitment to 
helping women around the world receive basic credit so that they can 
lift their lives and improve their families. I salute Valerie Harper 
for her leadership on this. Microcredit encourages entrepreneurship and 
free market economic development.
  The repayment rates on these loans are over 95 percent, and it is 
found that $1 million put into microcredit can generate $15 million in 
small loans over 5 years as people get better off and start building 
their own livelihoods. It gives poor people, and especially women, the 
means to meet the needs of their family in areas of health, education, 
and nutrition.
  Our First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke in Chicago a few years 
ago, and I thought she made a very important observation. She said, if 
you will look at the underdeveloped nations and wonder if they have a 
chance to move toward democracy or toward a free market economy, the 
first place you should look is how they treat women. Are women given an 
opportunity to be educated? Are they given an opportunity to work 
outside the home and develop their skills? How are they treated? I 
think we are finding in countries where microcredit is becoming an 
important part of the program that women are given that chance.
  This bill in particular requires the U.S. Agency for International 
Development to spend $160 million for fiscal year 1999 on its 
Microenterprise Assistance Program, with at least 50 percent of that 
amount dedicated to serving the poorest in the world with microcredit 
loans under $300. We know that these loans are repaid, and we know that 
they are recycled, so we are creating a stock, a basic pool of money 
that can be reinvested in nations around the world to bring them up to 
higher living standards.
  One-fifth of the world's population lives in extreme poverty. 
Microcredit is one of the most effective antipoverty tools in 
existence. I talked to one of my colleagues and asked him to cosponsor 
this bill the other day and he said, ``You know, I like this bill. 
There are so many things we do in foreign aid that end up creating more 
bureaucracies and agencies and studies; this is real, this gives to 
people who need a helping hand the kind of help that they really 
need.''
  Unfortunately, AID has had this program, even though it has not been 
specifically authorized, and they have not funded it at levels that I 
think are adequate. So this legislation will set a standard for how 
much we invest in this program each and every year. Many of my 
colleagues have joined me on this legislation. I hope that others who 
have not will take a look at it. I think they will find that this is a 
reasonable approach, a successful approach, and one where the 
investment in America's foreign aid dollars will not only be in our 
best interest, but in

[[Page S6039]]

the best interest of people around the world who just need a helping 
hand and opportunity. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
text of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2152

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Microcredit for Self-
     Sufficiency Act of 1998''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) More than 1,000,000,000 people in the developing world 
     are living in severe poverty.
       (2) According to the United Nations Children's Fund, the 
     mortality for children under the age of 5 is 10 percent in 
     all developing countries and nearly 20 percent in the poorest 
     countries.
       (3) Nearly 33,000 children die each day from malnutrition 
     and disease which is largely preventable.
       (4)(A) Women in poverty generally have larger work loads 
     and less access to educational and economic opportunities 
     than their male counterparts.
       (B) Directly aiding the poorest of the poor, especially 
     women, in the developing world has a positive effect not only 
     on family incomes, but also on child nutrition, health, and 
     education, since women tend to reinvest income in their 
     families.
       (5)(A) The poor in the developing world, particularly 
     women, generally lack stable employment and social safety 
     nets.
       (B) Many women turn to self-employment to generate a 
     substantial portion of their livelihood.
       (C) These poor entrepreneurs are often trapped in poverty 
     because they cannot obtain credit at reasonable rates to 
     build their asset base or expand their otherwise viable self-
     employment activities.
       (D) Many of the poor are forced to pay interest rates as 
     high as 10 percent per day to money lenders.
       (6)(A) On February 2-4, 1997, an international Microcredit 
     Summit was held in Washington, D.C., to launch a plan to 
     expand access to credit for self-employment and other 
     financial and business services to 100,000,000 of the world's 
     poorest families, especially the women of those families, by 
     2005.
       (B) With an average of 5 people to a family, achieving this 
     goal will mean that the benefits of microcredit will reach 
     nearly half of the world's more than 1,000,000,000 absolute 
     poor.
       (7)(A) The poor are able to expand their incomes and their 
     businesses dramatically when they have access to loans at 
     reasonable interest rates.
       (B) Through the development of self-sustaining microcredit 
     programs, poor people themselves can lead the fight against 
     hunger and poverty.
       (8)(A) Nongovernmental organizations such as the Grameen 
     Bank, Accion International, and the Foundation for 
     International Community Assistance (FINCA) have been 
     successful in lending directly to the very poor.
       (B) These institutions generate repayment rates averaging 
     95 percent or higher.
       (9)(A) Microcredit institutions not only reduce poverty, 
     but also reduce the dependency on foreign assistance.
       (B) Interest income on a credit portfolio can be used to 
     pay recurring institutional costs, assuring that the long-
     term development is sustained.
       (10) Microcredit institutions leverage foreign assistance 
     resources because loans are recycled, generating new benefits 
     to program participants.
       (11) The development of sustainable microcredit 
     institutions that provide credit and training, and mobilize 
     domestic savings, are critical to a global strategy of 
     poverty reduction and broad-based economic development.
       (12)(A) In 1994, AID launched a Microenterprise Initiative 
     in consultation with Congress.
       (B) The Initiative was committed to expanding funding for 
     AID's microenterprise programs, provided funding of 
     $137,000,000 for fiscal year 1994, and set a goal that, by 
     the end of fiscal year 1996, half of all microenterprise 
     resources would support programs and institutions providing 
     credit to the poorest with loans under $300.
       (C) In fiscal year 1996, total funding for microenterprise 
     activities fell to $111,000,000 of which only 39 percent was 
     used for programs benefiting the poorest with loans under 
     $300.
       (D) Increased investment in microcredit institutions 
     serving the poorest is critical to achieving the Microcredit 
     Summit's goal.
       (E) AID's funding for microenterprise activities in the 
     developing world should be expanded to $160,000,000 for 
     fiscal year 1999 to parallel the growing capacity of 
     microcredit institutions in the developing world.
       (13) Providing the United States share of the global 
     investment needed to achieve the goal of the Microcredit 
     Summit will require only a modest increase in United States 
     funding for international microcredit programs, with an 
     increased focus on institutions serving the poorest.
       (14)(A) In order to reach tens of millions of the poorest 
     with microcredit, it is crucial to expand and replicate 
     successful microcredit institutions.
       (B) Microcredit institutions need assistance in developing 
     their institutional capacity to expand their services and tap 
     commercial sources of capital.
       (15) PVOs and other nongovernmental organizations have 
     demonstrated competence in developing networks of local 
     microcredit institutions that can reach large numbers of the 
     very poor, and help the very poor achieve financial 
     sustainability.
       (16) Since AID has developed very effective partnerships 
     with PVOs and other nongovernmental organizations, AID should 
     place a priority on investing in PVOs and other 
     nongovernmental organizations through AID's central funding 
     mechanisms.
       (17) By expanding and replicating successful microcredit 
     institutions, AID should be able to assure the creation of a 
     global infrastructure to provide financial services to the 
     world's poorest families.
       (18)(A) AID can provide leadership among bilateral and 
     multilateral development aid agencies as such agencies expand 
     their support of microenterprise for the poorest.
       (B) AID should seek to improve the coordination of efforts 
     at the operational level to promote the best practices for 
     providing financial services to the poor and to ensure that 
     adequate institutional capacity is developed.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
       (1) to provide for the continuation and expansion of AID's 
     commitment to develop microcredit institutions;
       (2) to make microenterprise development the centerpiece of 
     the overall economic growth strategy of AID;
       (3) to support and develop the capacity of United States 
     PVOs, and other international nongovernmental organizations 
     to provide credit, savings, and training services to 
     microentrepreneurs; and
       (4) to increase the amount of assistance devoted to 
     providing access to credit for the poorest sector in 
     developing countries, particularly women.

     SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

       In this Act:
       (1) AID.--The term ``AID'' means the United States Agency 
     for International Development.
       (2) Microcredit, microenterprise, poverty lending; poverty 
     lending portion of mixed programs; mixed programs.--The terms 
     ``microcredit'', ``microenterprise'', ``poverty lending 
     portion of mixed programs'', and ``mixed programs'' have the 
     meaning given such terms under the 1994 Microenterprise 
     Initiative of AID.
       (3) PVOs and other nongovernmental organizations.--The term 
     ``PVOs and other nongovernmental organizations'' means--
       (A) private voluntary organizations (including cooperative 
     organizations), and
       (B) international, regional, or national nongovernmental 
     organizations,

     that are active in the region or country where the project is 
     located and that have the capacity to develop and implement 
     microenterprise programs that are oriented toward working 
     directly with the poor, especially the poorest and women.

     SEC. 4. MICROENTERPRISE ASSISTANCE.

       (a) Authorization.--
       (1) In general.--The President, acting through the 
     Administrator of AID, is authorized to establish programs to 
     provide credit and other assistance for microenterprises in 
     developing countries.
       (2) Use of pvos and other nongovernmental organizations.--
     Programs to provide credit for microenterprises and related 
     activities under this section shall be carried out primarily 
     by United States PVOs and other United States and indigenous 
     nongovernmental organizations, including credit unions, 
     cooperative organizations, and other private financial 
     intermediaries.
       (b) Eligibility Criteria.--The Administrator of AID shall 
     establish criteria for determining which entities described 
     in subsection (a)(2) are eligible to carry out the purposes 
     described in section 2(b). Such criteria shall include the 
     following:
       (1) The extent to which the recipients of credit from the 
     entity lack access to the local formal financial sector.
       (2) The extent to which the recipients of credit from the 
     entity are among the poorest people in the country.
       (3) The extent to which the entity is oriented toward 
     working directly with poor women.
       (4) The extent to which the entity is implementing a plan 
     to become financially self-reliant by charging realistic 
     interest rates to its borrowers.
       (c) Funding Levels for Fiscal Year 1999.--
       (1) In general.--Of the amounts made available to carry out 
     chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 
     U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), not less than $160,000,000 of the funds 
     made available for fiscal year 1999 shall be used to provide 
     assistance under this Act. The funds authorized under the 
     preceding sentence shall be in addition to any funds made 
     available in fiscal year 1999 for microenterprise activities 
     in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe pursuant to the 
     FREEDOM Support Act and any funds for special assistance 
     initiatives within Europe, the newly independent states of 
     the Former Soviet Union, Asia, and the Near East.
       (2) Additional requirements.--
       (A) Poverty lending.--Of the funds made available under 
     paragraph (1), not less than

[[Page S6040]]

     $80,000,000 shall be used to support poverty lending.
       (B) Support of pvos and other nongovernmental 
     organizations.--Of the funds made available under paragraph 
     (1), not less than $35,000,000 shall be provided through the 
     central funding mechanisms of AID for support of United 
     States PVOs and United States and indigenous nongovernmental 
     organizations.
       (C) Matching grant program.--Of the funds made available 
     under paragraph (1), not less than $10,000,000 shall be used 
     for the private voluntary organizations matching grant 
     program of AID for support of United States PVOs.
       (3) Definitions.--For purposes of this subsection--
       (A) To support poverty lending.--The term ``to support 
     poverty lending'' means--
       (i) funds lent to members of the poverty target population 
     (as defined in subparagraph (B)) in low-income countries in 
     amounts equivalent to $300 or less in 1997 United States 
     dollars; and
       (ii) funds used for institutional development of an entity 
     described in subsection (a)(2), that is engaged in--

       (I) making loans of $300 or less in 1997 United States 
     dollars to members of the poverty target population; or
       (II) the poverty lending portion of a mixed program.

       (B) Poverty target population.--The term ``poverty target 
     population'' means the poorest 50 percent of those 
     individuals living below the poverty line, defined by the 
     national government of the foreign country to which funds are 
     being provided.

     SEC. 5. PROGRAM PERFORMANCE CRITERIA.

       (a) Strengthening of Appropriate Mechanisms.--The 
     Administrator of AID shall--
       (1) strengthen appropriate mechanisms, including mechanisms 
     for central microenterprise programs, for the purpose of 
     strengthening the institutional development of the entities 
     described in section 4(a)(2); and
       (2) develop and strengthen appropriate mechanisms for the 
     purpose of gathering and disseminating the best practice for 
     targeting microcredit to the poorest segment of the 
     population.
       (b) Monitoring System.--In order to sustain the impact of 
     the assistance authorized under section 4, the Administrator 
     of AID shall establish a monitoring system that--
       (1) establishes performance goals for such assistance and 
     expresses such goals in an objective and quantifiable form;
       (2) establishes performance systems or indicators to 
     measure the extent to which projects are achieving such 
     goals; and
       (3) provides a basis for recommendations for adjustments to 
     such assistance to enhance the benefit of such assistance for 
     the very poor, particularly women.
       (c) Additional Monitoring Requirements.--As a part of the 
     monitoring system established under subsection (b), the 
     Administrator of AID--
       (1) using data provided by lending institutions, shall 
     monitor the actual amount of microenterprise credit and the 
     number of loans made available to the poverty target 
     population as a result of each project or program carried out 
     pursuant to this Act;
       (2) using data provided by lending institutions, shall 
     monitor the amount of funding provided pursuant to this Act 
     which is allocated to organizations engaged in making loans 
     of under $300 to the poverty target population, or to the 
     poverty lending portion of mixed programs;
       (3) shall report to Congress annually on the progress in 
     implementing AID's institutional plan of action to achieve 
     the Microcredit Summit goal of expanding access to credit and 
     other financial and business services to 100,000,000 of the 
     world's poorest families, especially the women in those 
     families, by 2005; and
       (4) shall include a summary of the information collected 
     under paragraphs (1) and (2) in AID's annual presentation to 
     Congress.

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I am pleased to be the lead cosponsor of 
the Microcredit for Self-Sufficiency Act of 1998. This bipartisan 
measure is an excellent means of fighting poverty and allowing the 
world's enterprising poor to escape it.
  Microcredit programs extend small loans to very poor people for self-
employment projects that generate income to allow them to care for 
themselves and their families. These loans are provided without 
collateral to poor people so they can start or expand small businesses. 
Microcredit encourages entrepreneurship and productivity among the 
poorest people in the world and allows them and their families to 
escape from poverty with dignity.
  I have always believed that the foreign assistance expenditures made 
by the United States should provide the maximum benefit in a cost-
efficient manner. Microcredit meets this most important test. 
Microcredit loans are repaid by borrowers at commercial interest rates 
or higher, and repayment rates reach 95% and above. The money invested 
in microcredit programs is continually recycled, allowing lenders to 
reach more people over time.
  This assessment is borne out by the Foundation for International 
Community Assistance (FINCA) which is a non-governmental organization 
working in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the United States. It 
estimates that, over 5 years, $1 million invested in one of their 
microcredit programs generates $15 million in new loans.
  The microcredit concept has been a great success. Around the world, 
small investments have allowed an estimated 10 million poor people to 
begin self-employment ventures as opposed to relying on government 
handouts. Far more families could benefit from microcredit, but do not 
yet have access to such opportunities as this type of lending is not 
typically done by most financial institutions. It is microcredit 
institutions that will undertake such opportunities to provide a poor 
woman in Bangladesh, for example, with the funds to buy an extra cow or 
goat to increase her modest farming output.
  Indeed, one real-life illustration of the success of this program has 
been the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In 1976, a man named Muhammad 
Yunus conducted an innovative research endeavor to examine the 
possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking 
services to help the rural poor. These are individuals who want to 
escape poverty but find that conventional sources of lending are 
unavailable to them because they lack the collateral to get a loan.
  The Grameen Bank Project began with the goals of extending banking 
facilities to poor men and women, and creating opportunities for self-
employment. It also aimed to reverse the vicious cycle of low income, 
low savings, and low investment by providing these individuals with 
credit that would yield greater investment and income.
  Today, the Grameen Bank is the largest rural credit institution in 
Bangladesh. It has over two million borrowers--94 percent of whom are 
women. The Grameen Bank covers more than half of all villages in 
Bangladesh and the repayment of its loans, which average $160 in United 
States dollars, is over 95%. The Bank has also helped train 
approximately 4,000 individuals from about 100 nations over the last 10 
years. There have been 223 Grameen style programs replicated in some 58 
nations in the last decade. This success story demonstrates what an 
individual is capable of when given the opportunity to help himself or 
herself escape poverty.
  Take the instance of Amena Begum, who in 1993, lived in poverty with 
her family in a village in Bangladesh. She and her family survived by 
living as squatters and earning money as day laborers or by operating 
micro-businesses in constant debt to loansharks. That same year, she 
convinced her husband to move the family to another village and joined 
the Grameen Bank. A neighbor told her ``We're all poor--or at least we 
all were when we joined. I'll stick up for you because I know you'll 
succeed in business.''
  Well, she was elected secretary of her Grameen Bank group and repaid 
a loan she received to start a chicken and duck raising business. 
Grameen then gave her a second loan and, today, her business is growing 
and providing for her family's basic needs.
  A continent away in Ethiopia another woman, Alemnesh Geressu, her 
landless husband, and their seven children were also struggling. For 
several years, she bought grain from a trader and sold it in the local 
market. However, most of her profit went back to the lender who charged 
more than 10 percent interest per month. With loans from a Catholic 
Relief Services Program, she was able to buy grain at a lower price 
from nearby farmers and make higher profits. Her business grew 
dramatically and she now sells a local beverage, grows vegetables and 
even raised a cow--all in addition to her grain marketing activities.
  Alemnesh now pays back her loan at a commercial rate that is ten 
times less than she used to pay to the local money lenders. She has 
enough to feed her family well and to send two of her children to 
school. Alemnesh says she now has ``more confidence and skills in 
myself and I wish the program could accommodate more women to improve 
their lives.''
  More families need to be touched by such programs. Just last year, at 
the 1997 Global Microcredit Summit, donor nations and international 
institutions established the goal of reaching 100 million of the 
world's poorest families,

[[Page S6041]]

especially the women in those families with microcredit loans by the 
year 2005. I believe that this bill, the Microcredit for Self-
Sufficiency Act of 1998, puts the United States on track to provide its 
share of funding to help achieve this worthwhile goal.
  This bill authorizes not less than $160 million in Fiscal Year 1999 
for the United States Agency for International Development's 
microenterprise program. To ensure that microcredit assistance goes to 
those most in need of assistance, the bill targets at least half of 
these resources to institutions serving the world's poorest families, 
with loans under $300. Further, the bill channels a larger proportion 
of microcredit assistance through effective nongovernmental 
organizations that promote the development and expansion of microcredit 
programs worldwide.
  Mr. President, microcredit programs enjoy broad bipartisan support 
not only because they help millions to work their way out of poverty 
but because they also recycle foreign aid dollars through loan 
repayments. Microcredit programs are self-sustainable, can be 
replicated, and are powerful vehicles for social development.
  This bill would increase the number of families that have access to 
such programs. Microcedit programs would be raised to a higher priority 
among our nation's foreign aid initiatives. And the investments called 
for in this bill will help bring the possibility of financial 
independence to millions of potential entrepreneurs who struggle to 
survive on less than $1 a day.
                                 ______