[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 132 (Monday, October 4, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11859-S11860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HURRICANE FLOYD RELIEF

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, it was on September 16 that Hurricane Floyd 
crashed into the North Carolina coast dumping 20 inches of rain that 
resulted in devastating floods. The region of Eastern North Carolina 
most affected was visited by another 4-6 inches of rain just a week 
later, making an already catastrophic situation even worse.
  So I noted with great interest when President Clinton paid a visit to 
a group of elite international financiers at the annual World Bank and 
IMF meeting 13 days later (September 29) to make an important 
announcement. It was there that he disclosed with great fanfare his 
proposal to forgive 100 percent of the debt owed by some 40 foreign 
countries to the United States--and much of their debt owed indirectly 
to the U.S. through the World Bank and the IMF.
  Thirteen days after Hurricane Floyd arrived, and when many 
communities in my state were still literally under water, President 
Clinton decided it was appropriate to make the following plea on behalf 
of debt relief to foreign governments--he said: ``. . . I call on our 
Congress to respond to the moral and economic urgency of this issue, 
and see to it that America does its part. I have asked for the money 
and shown how it would be paid for, and I ask the Congress to keep our 
country shouldering its fair share of the responsibility.''
  No wonder my constituents are puzzled as to why, in the words of John 
Austin of Tryon, North Carolina, ``we can help everyone else--but not 
our own people.'' North Carolinians understand instinctively that there 
is something odd about our national priorities when we have spent 
more--$27.9 billion--on foreign aid in the past two years than the 
$27.7 billion FEMA has expended in the past ten years. That's right: 
government aid through FEMA for such wide-ranging disasters as the 
Northridge earthquakes in California, Hurricane Andrew in South Florida 
and the catastrophic Midwestern floods doesn't even measure up to the 
past two years of foreign aid.
  Now, I have been in constant communication with the Majority Leader, 
the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, members on the other side 
of the aisle, and countless federal agencies seeking relief for 
thousands of North Carolinians who have been ruined by Hurricane Floyd. 
Helping these victims is the number one priority for those with whom I 
have spoken. And for the record, I am gratified by their cooperation 
and their determination to help.
  With respect to the President's plan to forgive the debts of foreign 
governments, I remind Senators that every one of the governments whose 
debt the President proposes to forgive has no one to blame but 
themselves for pursuing socialist and statist policies, and often 
outright theft, that drove them in a hole in the first place.
  Just how much is being taken away from victims in my state to fund 
the President's proposal? The Administration calculates that it will 
cost $320 million to forgive the $5.7 billion in mostly uncollectible 
debts owed to the U.S. Additionally, Uncle Sam is being asked to 
underwrite debt forgiveness to the World Bank and the IMF to the tune 
of $650 million.
  That's a total of $970 million which North Carolina and 
other devastated regions desperately need, but will not get because 
money used to forgive the debts of foreigners is money that cannot and 
will not be used to assist hurricane victims.

  Bear in mind, Mr. President, that the United States has already 
provided approximately $32.3 billion in foreign aid to just these 
countries since the end of World War II. And the U.S. Government has 
already provided $3.47 billion in debt forgiveness to these countries 
in the past several years alone.
  If Senators study the list of countries, it turns out that the 
President seeks to reward governments who keep their people in economic 
and political bondage, and he proposes to do it at the expense of 
suffering Americans. The human rights organization Freedom House 
determined that only eight of the 36 proposed beneficiaries are 
``free'' in terms of political expression. At least one on the World 
Bank's list of countries eligible to receive debt forgiveness is a 
terrorist state, and that's

[[Page S11860]]

Sudan. Also included are the communist dictatorships in Angola, Vietnam 
and the military dictatorship Burma.
  The Heritage Foundation determined that none of the countries in 
question are ``free'' economically. (The economies of the vast majority 
of the countries judged are either ``repressed'' or ``mostly unfree'' 
according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.) Some 
countries on the World Bank's list do not even have functioning 
governments, such as Somalia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
  Only one of 36 countries voted with the United States more than half 
of the time at the United Nations in 1998 (that is Honduras, which 
supported the U.S. only 55 percent of the time). Make no mistake about 
it: this proposal diverts assistance from Hurricane Floyd victims to 
corrupt, economically and politically repressed foreign countries--many 
of whom are not even friendly to the United States.
  Mr. President, my office has received a steady stream of visitors and 
mail urging Congress to support the ``Jubilee 2000'' debt forgiveness 
plan, which now includes the President's proposal. It has been a well-
orchestrated lobbying campaign.
  But since the day Hurricane Floyd slammed into the North Carolina 
coast and dumped 20 inches of rain on the eastern third of my state, 
the phone calls and mail from North Carolina in support of debt 
forgiveness to foreign governments has dried up. The reason is clear: 
we have a natural disaster unlike any seen in 500 years here at home, 
and our duty is to help suffering Americans first.
  Mr. President, I'm putting the Administration on notice here and now 
that the first priority shall be helping victims of Hurricane Floyd. 
Not until sufficient resources are dedicated to this effort by the 
federal government will I agree to Senate consideration of President 
Clinton's debt forgiveness to foreign governments proposal.

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