[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 7, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S11680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NEED FOR IMF FUNDING

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I want to talk very briefly about the 
International Monetary Fund and the meeting that took place in 
Washington yesterday and today and will be taking place this week.
  The eyes of the world are on Washington this week where the major 
international financial institutions search for answers to the most 
serious international economic crisis in years. As the world's most 
successful economy at the moment, the United States bears, in my view, 
an unavoidable responsibility, and that responsibility is to lead--lead 
in a search for answers to this crisis.
  But as last year's Asian financial turmoil has evolved into a global 
financial crisis, to my great disappointment, the House of 
Representatives persists in what I must say--and I realize it is a 
strong word--in its irresponsible refusal to approve funding for the 
International Monetary Fund.
  Twice this year the U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly supported the so-
called U.S. quota, our share of a larger capital reserve for the IMF to 
pull threatened countries back from the brink of economic collapse. And 
twice this year, the House of Representatives has refused to provide 
the resources--at no cost to the American taxpayer--that the IMF needs 
to contain this widening crisis.
  As President Clinton, Secretary Rubin, and our representatives to the 
international financial institutions in Washington this week urge their 
counterparts from the rest of the world to join us in controlling the 
crisis, the response that we are hearing is: ``Show us the money.''
  There was a movie out that won an Academy Award, and in that movie, 
they said, ``Show me the money.'' We have our Secretary of the Treasury 
and our President constituting an American plea for the rest of the 
world to act responsibly, and they are being told, ``Show us the 
money.'' I want to point out that even if these other countries ante up 
their share, the IMF cannot take any action, absent us putting in our 
share, because you need an 85-percent vote.
  Try as they might, how can we expect our leadership to lead the rest 
of the world with the albatross of the House's irresponsibility hung 
squarely around their necks? By failing to provide full funding of our 
participation in the IMF, we undercut our credibility and our 
authority, the credibility and the authority of the world's 
indispensable economic leader, in the most serious international 
economic crisis, at least of my generation and the Presiding Officer's.
  Go down to these meetings, Mr. President--and I suggest this to all 
my colleagues--and the first thing you will hear from both our 
representatives and their counterparts from around the world is the 
complaint that the U.S. Congress is holding up one of the key elements 
they need to construct a response to the current crisis: the funds to 
protect vulnerable economies from financial collapse.
  Every State in the Union--from States as far away as Washington and 
Delaware--every State in the Union has been hit by the decline in our 
agricultural and manufacturing exports because of the collapse of major 
markets for American goods around the world.
  In my own State of Delaware, exports to Asia are down 20 percent 
compared to last year. That translates into jobs--Delaware jobs. The 
crisis that began last year in Asia has spiraled around the planet to 
Russia, a nuclear power facing economic and political collapse, and on 
to our closest trading partners in Latin America.
  Mr. President, I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that 
without the resources to support Brazil and other countries threatened 
by the wild swings of international capital flows, countries as 
important to us as Mexico, our third largest trading partner, could be 
the next to fall. And yet, in my view--and I realize some may disagree, 
even those who voted with me on funding of IMF in the Senate--in my 
view, the House continues to play politics with our obligation to the 
only international institution in the position to attempt to control 
the spread of economic meltdown.
  Once again, I urge my colleagues in the House to come to their 
senses, to match the Senate in action and provide the U.S. share for 
the IMF quota increase. Time is running out, Mr. President. I hope what 
I read in the papers--what we all read in the papers--that the 
leadership in the House is about to release this money, about to vote 
for it, is true, because time is running out and there will be a price 
to pay for inaction.
  I thank my colleagues. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Will the Senator withhold?
  Mr. BIDEN. I withhold the request suggesting the absence of a quorum.
  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
permitted to speak as in morning business for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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