[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 90 (Thursday, July 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H6029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REFLECTING ON FOREIGN POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am glad the gentlewoman from 
California is still on the floor, because I wanted to add my 
appreciation for her leadership in shepherding the debate on the 
Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, knowing the gentlewoman's 
commitment to social justice issues. She clearly evidenced leadership 
on some of these very vital issues of hunger and HIV/AIDS and debt 
relief. Likewise, I do appreciate the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. 
Callahan) being willing to oversee some of the more contentious issues 
that we dealt with in dealing with foreign policy.
  I thought it was appropriate after these last 48 hours to sort of 
conceptualize and summarize some of the human rights and justice issues 
that many times Americans do not focus on because it is or belongs to 
the other guys. It is foreign policy. It is those people overseas who 
are taking large chunks of our monies. But I want to remind this body 
that, in fact, the appropriations for foreign operations and foreign 
policy is but a sliver of the large budget of the United States of 
America.
  But in that investment which, as I heard one of my colleagues from 
Alabama talk about what it would mean to an American if we invested in 
helping developing nations and very, very poor nations remove the heavy 
laden debt that they have on them, so much debt that all of their GNP 
is utilized not to pay the debt, but to pay the interest on the debt, 
almost as if all of one's income was utilized to pay for one credit 
card debt, and I would imagine there are some saying, that is the case; 
but by the fact that their GNP dollars are used for interest on the 
debt that they owe to all of these world institutions, they cannot 
provide for health care or housing or education or basic research for 
some of these devastating diseases.
  So that is why there was such a feel of contentiousness around such 
issues as whether or not we should invest more in providing debt relief 
for countries like Guatemala and Honduras where the individual citizen 
gets $868 a month, probably less than what we would spend on a color 
television. In fact, our investment in debt relief may generate only 
$1.28 per American, as evidenced by one of our colleagues from Alabama, 
maybe a Sunday newspaper, or maybe, as he said, an ice cream cone.
  If we look at the world as getting smaller and smaller, I believe 
that we would find the need and the importance of investing and 
ensuring that there is peace, rather than war, that despots are not 
able to take over these countries again. All of the young lives that we 
lost in Vietnam because we were so concerned about the domino theory 
and communism, and now that there is some peace in the Vietnams, it is 
important that we maintain peace by investment, by having the 
opportunity for the citizens of these nations to live a quality of life 
not equal to the United States, but certainly a decent quality of life.
  So I supported the infusion of dollars into debt relief, because I 
believe Americans, once educated, would understand it is investment for 
our own safety and security.
  It is important to listen to the crisis of those in Sierra Leone, a 
country very far away, who are crying out for democracy; yet they are 
suffering, because in Sierra Leone, as in other countries, they are 
conscripting children to fight the wars of men. Four- and 5-year-olds 
are now at war because the rebels are not allowing democracy and peace 
to survive. That is why I offered amendments that would put more 
dollars into peacekeeping and brought an amendment to the floor to stop 
the most heinous act of drawing children into war. It happened in 
Vietnam; those who remember the stories of young children who were 
racked with bombs that attacked our soldiers or who were carrying 
weapons. That is what is going on in many of the developing nations. 
The children that refuse to go into war, their limbs are hacked off, or 
they are being stolen as slaves and forced to kill. One such story was 
told of a child, Susan, who was forced to kill someone and to watch 
them die when she refused to go.
  So we as a country dealing with foreign policy must ensure that that 
does not happen. As I close, Mr. Speaker, I believe issues such as the 
death penalty also require our attention for justice. With that, I hope 
this country will rise to its higher calling.

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