[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 109 (Tuesday, July 22, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H7237-H7241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 2800, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT
FINANCING AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, by the direction of
the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 327 and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 327
Resolved, That at any time after the adoption of this
resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule
XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the
Whole House on the State of the Union for consideration of
the bill (H.R. 2800) making appropriations for foreign
operations, export financing, and related programs for the
fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other
purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed
with. All points of order against consideration of the bill
are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and
shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by
the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on
Appropriations. After general debate the bill shall be
considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. Points
of order against provisions in the bill for failure to comply
with clause 2 of rule XXI are waived except as follows:
sections 568(a)(3), 572, and 575. Where points of order are
waived against part of a section, points of order against a
provision in another part of such section may be made only
against such provision and not against the entire section.
During consideration of the bill for amendment, the Chairman
of the Committee of the Whole may accord priority in
recognition on the basis of whether the Member offering an
amendment has caused it to be printed in the portion of the
Congressional Record designated for that purpose in clause 8
of rule XVIII. Amendments so printed shall be considered as
read. At the conclusion of consideration of the bill for
amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill to the
House with such amendments as may have been adopted. The
previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill
and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening
motion except one motion to recommit with or without
instructions.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bass). The gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of
debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as
I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time
yielded is for purposes of debate only.
(Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida asked and was given permission to
revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 327
is an open rule that provides for the consideration of H.R. 2800, the
fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related
Programs Appropriations Act.
The rule provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and
controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member on
Appropriations. The rule also provides one motion to recommit with or
without instructions.
The legislation we bring today to the floor, Mr. Speaker,
appropriates over $17 billion for operations across the globe. This
bill is fiscally sound while at the same time, I think, is responsive
to many of the needs that we are seeking to address throughout the
world where there are extraordinarily difficult issues related to
disease and famine and many other forms of international disaster.
H.R. 2800 provides over $1.4 billion to combat HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis, and malaria. It is $86 million above the President's
request. The funding will continue its important mission to provide
training and technical assistance to private and voluntary
organizations that work to eradicate debilitating diseases from both
individuals and, in fact, societies.
The majority of this funding will be included in the Child Survival
and Health Programs Fund, dedicated to lowering infant, child and
maternal mortality rates in developing countries. The fund will see,
through this legislation, a substantial increase of over $400 million
over last year's appropriation.
The Agency for International Development, AID, will receive over $4.7
billion, $166 million above last fiscal year. Continuing its mission
first defined by the Marshall Plan following World War II, AID has
embarked on aggressive plans to promote health and economic strength
through environmental protection, agricultural assistance and
educational programs.
As with many other agencies following September 11, 2001, AID has
recently seen its work extend to essential tasks related to the
elimination of terrorism and social unrest through programs that
attempt to contribute to stability. Although AID's work on terrorism is
vital, H.R. 2800 goes much further, seeking to ensure significant
funding for international security through assistance programs and
activities in other realms.
The bill provides over $2.6 billion for assistance to Israel. As the
roadmap to peace in this very delicate process
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moves forward, it is our obligation, it is the obligation of this
Congress to ensure support for Israel in every way necessary.
In other foreign assistance, H.R. 2800 funds the Andean Counterdrug
Initiative, at the President's request, $731 million. For years,
terrorists in Colombia have plagued efforts in that democratic country
for peace. We believe that proactive action must continue to be taken
to help the Colombian people defeat the armed rebels and to, as much as
possible, stabilize that democratic society.
With the current landscape in the world today, foreign assistance is
as strategically just, really, as it is a moral imperative. Instability
in the world creates, Mr. Speaker, an environment in which terrorism
finds it easy to breed new converts. We must not take progress, in the
Andean region for example, for granted. If the United States turns its
back on that region, the possible scenarios are extremely worrisome.
For the first time, Mr. Speaker, this bill appropriates $800 million
for the President's Millennium Challenge Account. This historic
expansion in foreign aid serves to bring economic security and basic
tenets of democracy to those that really have not seen them in the past
or to societies where democracy is extremely fragile. The Millennium
Challenge Account will be administered by a government corporation held
responsible to results and yet benefiting from flexibility to provide
innovative solutions to the problems of poverty.
H.R. 2800, Mr. Speaker, was introduced by the gentleman from Arizona
(Mr. Kolbe), chairman of the subcommittee, and was reported out of the
Committee on Appropriations on July 16 by a voice vote, in other words,
with extraordinary bipartisan support. It is very good legislation.
Chairman Kolbe has long worked on this, as well as the members of the
subcommittee, and I think they all deserve our gratitude. So I thank
Chairman Kolbe and the ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York
(Mrs. Lowey), for their leadership on this important issue. And I urge
my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida for
yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself 8 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, adoption of this rule will allow the House to consider
H.R. 2800, the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for fiscal year
2004. This rule exposes to points of order three sections of the bill,
a section relating to debt forgiveness through the Commodity Credit
Corporation for poor countries; a section relating to open bidding
process for reconstruction contracts in Iraq; and a section relating to
the duties of the Millennium Challenge Commissioner. And we are very
concerned about that, Mr. Speaker.
Although this rule allows any Member to offer amendments under the 5-
minute rule, it is not completely open. The standing rules of the House
severely restrict the amendment process on all appropriations bills.
Therefore, even though the Committee on Rules granted a rule that
technically does not restrict the amendment process, by its nature,
that amendment process for appropriations bills is still limited.
Spending amendments almost always require funding offsets elsewhere
in the bill. Limitations must be very narrowly crafted and cannot
impose any new duty on the agency or department to which the limitation
is directed.
{time} 1030
Whether or not an amendment is germane is just one criterion that
must be met in order for an amendment to be made in order on an
appropriations bill. House rules prohibit amendments to appropriations
bills if they contain authorizing language, if they provide funding for
unauthorized programs, services or projects, and if amendments violate
the Budget Act. In general, nearly all substantive amendments require
some type of waiver, waivers that are rarely granted by the Committee
on Rules.
Mr. Speaker, several Members came before the Committee on Rules last
night and requested waivers for their amendments. I supported the right
of every Member who came before the committee to offer their
amendments. They are serious amendments and this is an important bill.
However, I am particularly disappointed that a very thoughtful
amendment offered by the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Foreign
Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs, the gentlewoman from
New York, was not made in order by this rule. The Lowey amendment would
designate as emergency funding an additional $1 billion for HIV/AIDS
programs. Had it been made in order, the Lowey amendment would have
given this body the opportunity to help President Bush fulfill the
promises he has so recently made to African nations to provide $3
billion in fiscal year 2004 in the global campaign against HIV/AIDS.
The gentleman from Arizona and the gentlewoman from New York are to
be commended for the funding for HIV/AIDS that is provided in the bill
given overall funding constraints placed on foreign aid funding for
fiscal year 2004. The bill contains a total of $1.43 billion in global
assistance to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, most of which
is within the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund. But even when
this amount is combined with the funding in the Labor-HHS
appropriations bill, it is still nearly $1 billion short of the $3
billion for fiscal year 2004 pledged by President Bush and authorized
by this Congress with great fanfare just a few weeks ago. Mr. Speaker,
I fear that once again this House may be making promises that it has
absolutely no intention of keeping.
And although the House will not have the opportunity to consider the
Lowey amendment, Members will have a chance to consider at least two
other amendments that attempt to address the shortfalls. The
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) will offer an amendment that
would transfer $300 million from the Millennium Challenge Account to
the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund to boost the amount for
HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. And the gentleman from Missouri
(Mr. Skelton) and I will offer an amendment to make very modest
reductions from two accounts that provide military aid for Colombia in
order to add $75 million to the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund
for programs that combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other
deadly infectious diseases.
If adopted, Mr. Speaker, each of these amendments will save hundreds
of thousands of lives. $75 million alone, the funding in the McGovern-
Skelton amendment, would ensure that an additional 250,000 people could
receive the HIV/AIDS generic drug treatment for an entire year. Think
of it, Mr. Speaker. If the McGovern-Skelton amendment is approved,
250,000 more fathers and mothers and children will have access to these
lifesaving drugs. The Kilpatrick amendment would increase the expansion
of mother-to-child transmission programs, expand prevention programs
and establish drug purchase and distribution centers in Africa and
throughout the developing world.
Forty-two million people are currently living with AIDS around the
world. Last year, 3 million people died of AIDS and 5 million more were
infected. Mr. Speaker, the House has the opportunity to do the right
thing, to save more lives this afternoon, by supporting both the
McGovern-Skelton and Kilpatrick amendments. I would urge my colleagues
to support both of them.
H.R. 2800 provides $17.1 billion, far below the fiscal year 2003
total spending level of $23 billion for foreign operations and $1.7
billion below the amount requested by President Bush. While it
increases moneys for basic education and funds reconstruction in
Afghanistan and U.S. commitments in the Middle East, it still falls
short of what the United States should do, indeed must do, to ensure
our long-term security at home and abroad.
Development assistance, for example, is cut by $63 million from last
year's level. This is the account that funds microenterprise programs,
clean water projects, agricultural and rural development and a wide
variety of USAID-supported projects that move impoverished communities
toward food security, self-sufficiency, and economic prosperity. What
does a cut of $63 million mean? It means thousands of
[[Page H7239]]
women who were enrolled in microenterprise projects will be cut off.
Small farmers who were encouraged to cultivate new crops that might be
able to compete in regional or even global markets will find that their
project funding has disappeared and they have been left to fend for
themselves without seed, without credit, without technical assistance.
So not only will these programs not expand; we will be cutting off
precious aid, support, and hope to tens of millions of people around
the world. From East Timor to Mali to Bolivia, from eastern Europe to
the Balkans to South Asia, people will be cut off. These are people and
communities and governments who have chosen to be our partners. What
kind of partner does the United States show itself to be when we turn
our backs on the very people we just shook hands with?
Mr. Speaker, we need a foreign operations bill that honors the
promises our Nation has already made to the nations and peoples of the
world and one that seeks to expand our very best programs even further.
We need such a bill not only because it helps those in need but because
it is essential for our own national security. This bill, in my
opinion, does not meet those needs. It cannot, because from the very
start this House simply failed to make those resources available.
Mr. Speaker, I regret that this bill is so restricted in funding. I
regret that several amendments that required waivers were not made in
order.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as
he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), a
distinguished, fine leader of the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. KNOLLENBERG. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations,
Export Financing and Related Programs, I rise to strongly support this
bill. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will do likewise.
I commend and thank the gentleman from Arizona for his hard work and
leadership as the chairman of the subcommittee. He has consistently
sought to accommodate the many concerns expressed by Members while
remaining focused on bringing a responsible and effective bill before
us here today. That, of course, is not an easy task; but he has
accomplished it effectively, and he has the good help obviously of the
ranking member, the gentlewoman from New York. I also thank the
committee staff for their tireless work. They are an excellent group,
and we are lucky to have them in this House.
Mr. Speaker, foreign assistance remains an inseparable part of our
Nation's overall foreign policy, national security and economic
interests. This is a responsible bill that effectively allocates the
foreign assistance that we have available. For the first time ever,
this foreign operations bill includes funding for the Millennium
Challenge Account, some $800 million. Our President deserves some great
credit for proposing this initiative. The strength of the MCA, or
Millennium Challenge Account, is that it focuses responsibility for
economic growth on the policies of the governments of developing
countries. One important lesson the United States has learned from our
experience is financial assistance can only be effective when
developing countries are committed to establishing the necessary
economic, legal, and political reforms.
With our financial assistance, we can help a country grow; but we
cannot make a country grow. The governments have to have the right
policies in place. In light of this reality, MCA funding will be
targeted to projects in specific nations that govern justly, invest in
their people, and encourage economic freedom. I urge my colleagues to
support the funding for this very important initiative.
Mr. Speaker, one of the most important contributions this bill makes
to our foreign policy is the annual assistance package to the Middle
East. Israel, of course, is our closest ally in the region and shares
our values of democracy and freedom. I am pleased that this bill fully
supports the administration request of $2.6 billion in military and
economic assistance to Israel as well as $50 million to support the
resettlement of Jewish refugees. The United States must continue to
stand in strong support of Israel. In addition, this bill provides some
$1.9 billion to Egypt and over $450 million to Jordan, both critical
allies of the United States.
Further, I am pleased that this bill provides $35 million for Lebanon
to support the American educational institutions and the excellent
USAID mission there. Combined with our funding for Morocco, Yemen, the
West Bank and Gaza, and our regional programs like the Middle East
Partnership Initiative, our programs in the Middle East, if focused
properly, can help foster changes in the region.
The Middle East faces severe development challenges. Reports such as
the ``2002 Arab Human Development Report'' by the United Nations
Development Program has provided a clear diagnosis of this problem. It
is my hope that American assistance to our Arab allies will help
support institutional changes that lead to greater freedom, political
empowerment, and economic growth.
Mr. Speaker, this bill also helps to strengthen our relationship with
our friend and ally, Armenia. Armenia continues to suffer from
blockades by its neighbors. Our assistance to the country helps to
offset these conditions. Therefore, I am pleased that this bill
increases assistance to Armenia to $70 million, some $20.5 million
above the President's request. I look forward to working with the
chairman in conference on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, there are other important elements of this bill,
including trade capacity building, foreign military financing for new
NATO members and, of course, significant funding beyond the President's
request to continue the fight against the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and
around the world. I believe this to be a good bill, within the
allocation provided to the subcommittee, and represents a responsible
contribution to our Nation's foreign policy, national security, and
economic goals.
I once again want to commend the chairman for his efforts on this
bill. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this
what I believe to be a great bill, a balanced bill. We need to do it
right here in the House today.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from
New York (Mrs. Lowey), who has taken the lead in fighting for
additional funds for HIV/AIDS programs.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, although I am a strong supporter of this
bill, I rise to express my disappointment with the rule. On a party-
line vote, the Committee on Rules refused to make my amendment in order
to add $1 billion in emergency funds for HIV/AIDS. I requested that it
be made in order so that the full House would have the opportunity to
vote to provide the $3 billion authorized in the recently passed HIV/
AIDS bill. Unfortunately, we are being denied the opportunity to live
up to the promises we have made. It is truly a shame that the White
House opposed this amendment when I offered it during full committee
consideration of the bill. These funds are needed and can be used
effectively next year.
The gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) will be offering an
amendment to the bill adding $300 million for HIV/AIDS, which I urge
Members to support. The amendment will be offset with $300 million from
the Millennium Challenge Account, which in my judgment is overfunded in
the bill at $800 million, because I do not believe they can spend it in
this appropriations cycle.
I am perplexed by other aspects of this rule. Apparently, the
Committee on Rules feels compelled not to protect language in
appropriation bills if authorizing committee chairmen object. A
provision requiring competitive contracting in Iraq has been left
unprotected. Language allowing bilateral agricultural debt to be
rescheduled along with all other U.S. Government debt has also been
left unprotected. And language clarifying how AID should interact with
the new Millennium Challenge Corporation is unprotected as well. All of
these provisions were included for sound policy reasons and were
supported by the Committee on Appropriations. It was necessary to
include them only because the authorizing committees have failed to
address the issues involved. It is my hope that
[[Page H7240]]
the authorizing committee members involved would think twice before
making their points of order, but the practical implications of
dropping the language in the bill seem to be of secondary concern to
jurisdictional interests.
The rule also failed to make in order a number of important
provisions, including a request from the Committee on Financial
Services to authorize several international banks. This authorization
is badly needed and long overdue. There were other Democratic
amendments that were not given protection from points of order,
including amendments by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson), a
member of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and
Related Programs, which would have helped fill the gap in our funding
for various programs in Africa. Again, my colleagues, it is very
disappointing that the full House will not be allowed to consider a
number of sound policy initiatives today.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to
the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger), the distinguished
chairman of the Subcommittee on The Western Hemisphere of the Committee
on International Relations.
Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank the
gentleman for yielding me this time. I want to say some good words
about something that very few people say in a positive fashion and that
is the AID supplement that goes on by our State Department in handling
disastrous areas and helping develop countries that need all the
assistance in the world.
{time} 1045
As I am chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, I have been
heavily involved in Central and South America for 35 years, and I have
watched AID build and construct efforts on growing democracy in all of
these areas, as well as trying to take care of people who are starving.
It is hard to believe it, but in Venezuela after the floods killed
close to 50,000 to 75,000, AID was there immediately to supply
equipment for fresh water, to help supply foods, to help supply all of
the necessary things to rebuild that country.
In Honduras, I do not know how many people remember Hurricane Mitch,
but it almost wiped out the whole country of Honduras. AID helped
build, at least I know I was involved with them in 3,000 homes that
they helped build, and to rebuild their banana crops which were
completely destroyed.
In El Salvador after the earthquake that people may or may not
remember, 1,000 people were killed. AID furnished a hospital in the
area that had been completely just about wiped out by landslides caused
by the earthquake, and also helped to rebuild the homes that were
destroyed in the countryside of El Salvador.
But mostly I want to thank AID for the effort that they have done in
Colombia in developing alternative crops, every type of crop that one
can think of, trying to develop some with a method of replacing coca,
which is the major producer of cocaine. They supply pretty close to 100
percent of all the cocaine that is used in this country, killing our
children on a daily basis; and AID and its workers have been all over
Colombia developing anything they can to strengthen their economy and
to give them some other way of earning a living, rather than growing
coca.
Coffee itself was Colombia's major crop, and then some brilliant mind
came along with the idea of let us teach the Vietnamese how to grow
coffee. The Vietnamese expanded coffee growth and so forth, along with
the Brazilians. It just about destroyed the market for coffee. So the
area that AID is trying to help the Colombian people, where the major
production of coffee exists, is to somehow strengthen the product in
such a way of making it cleaner and easier to sell it in this country.
And they are doing a wonderful job, and they need all the assistance
they can get.
They are also working in the area of Putamayo, which is the heaviest
area of growth of coca in the whole country of Colombia, in developing
what people would say is something that makes a great deal of sense.
They happen to be in almost the Amazon area of South America with large
amounts of lumber, timber, and so forth and so on; and they have been
cutting trees and shipping the whole tree to Bogota where it is cut up
and sawn and so forth, and they have a fairly large furniture industry
that happens to be tied into the furniture industry in Hickory, North
Carolina, where I come from.
What they are doing is, they are trying to help these people down
there in Putamayo, a very poor area of their country, to develop an
actual timbering process where they cut the trees down, they saw them
up into boards, and then they kiln dry it in such a way that it all of
a sudden is usable as lumber in the industry of manufacturing
furniture.
Also, the shipment of the goods from Putamayo to Bogota, if they ship
the whole tree, they are shipping half water. With this effort that
they are putting in right now, it is an effort to really be able to
upgrade the living standard of those people there, and I would just
like to say that any time anybody questions what AID is doing, I hope
they will speak to me.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to take the opportunity to
thank the ranking member on the subcommittee and the chairman of the
subcommittee and also the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg),
the cochair of the Armenia Caucus, for the increased funding for
Armenia that is in the Foreign Ops appropriations bill. The
administration had requested only $49.5 million for humanitarian
assistance to Armenia this year, and the subcommittee increased the
funding by $20.5 million. Basically, it is $70 million now. In
addition, they allocated $2.5 million in foreign military financing and
$900,000 for International Military Education and Training, as well as
$5 million in assistance to Nagorno-Karabakh.
I will say, Mr. Speaker, of course, the overall funding for the
former Soviet states that was recommended by the administration was
significantly lower, so this amount still does not reach the $90
million that Armenia received last year. But I know that the
subcommittee was working with tremendous constraints, and so what they
accomplished to get us up to the $70 million was truly exceptional. I
am hoping, of course, that during the conference with the Senate, we
can do more, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to mention how
important this aid is.
Armenia continues to be blockaded on both sides by Turkey and
Azerbaijan. There is a continued need for humanitarian assistance.
There continue to be improvements in the Armenian economy in their
efforts to achieve a market economy, but unemployment is still very
high in the majority of the population. So this type of assistance is
important, and the fact that the subcommittee and the members on a
bipartisan basis were willing to increase the funding is certainly
appreciated.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, we have no further
speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out one thing that is of great
concern to me. I am extremely disappointed that the majority in the
Committee on Rules exposes to a point of order a section requiring an
open bidding process for reconstruction contracts in Iraq. This
section, included by the gentleman from Arizona (Chairman Kolbe) in the
fiscal year 2004 Foreign Operations bill requires competitive bidding
for any new reconstruction contract in Iraq. Without this provision,
the administration will be able to award enormously valuable contracts
to large corporations without any competition and all behind closed
doors, if they so chose.
Mr. Speaker, we have seen this happen before. After the war in Iraq
began, the Department of Defense began to negotiate and award contracts
for the reconstruction of Iraq. One contract was awarded to
Halliburton, the Vice President's former employer. This contract to
clean up the oil wells and to get them ready for mass production was
awarded without competition and behind closed doors to Halliburton.
[[Page H7241]]
The gentleman from Arizona (Chairman Kolbe), to his great credit,
wants to end this practice and return to the standard of competitive
bidding. But there is opposition to this effort. The chairman of the
Committee on Government Reform and a former chairman of the National
Republican Congressional Committee requested that this section be
exposed to a point of order.
Mr. Speaker, that is very unfortunate. We must make sure that the
rebuilding effort in Iraq is above-board without the appearance of
shady dealings and smoke-filled rooms. So I would urge my colleagues to
make sure that we retain this important provision.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, I again want to commend the gentleman from
Arizona (Chairman Kolbe) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs.
Lowey), ranking member, for all the good that they have done in this
bill. I only wish they had had more resources to work with.
To me, the major shortfall of this bill is the inadequate funding for
HIV/AIDS programs. It is important that the United States keep its
promise. And Members will have two opportunities later this afternoon
to do just that, by supporting the McGovern-Skelton amendment and the
Kilpatrick amendment. Both of these amendments will in the end increase
the amount of money for HIV/AIDS programs.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such
time as I may consume.
The legislation that we bring to the floor today is extremely
important to the national interests of the United States. The $17-plus
billion in this legislation helps millions of people throughout the
world. This is an extremely important piece of legislation.
We bring it to the floor with an open rule. In other words, any
relevant amendment, any germane amendment by any Member of this House
will be able to be introduced and debated. It is an open rule.
So again I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Chairman Kolbe) and the
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), ranking member, and members of
the subcommittee for their hard work on this important issue; and at
this point, once again, urge all of our colleagues to support the
underlying legislation and this open rule.
Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this rule.
This rule has been designated as ``Open'' but the truth is that a
number of important amendments were defeated in Committee on a party
line vote.
I am disappointed that the Maloney/Crowley amendment that would
direct the $25 million appropriated in this bill for the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) to prevent, treat, and repair obstetric fistula
was ruled out of order.
Two weeks ago, President Bush visited Senegal, South Africa,
Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. This was an important visit which
demonstrated that this Administration is willing to work with and
commit resources to the continent of Africa. Two of the countries he
visited, Uganda and Nigeria, were included in a recent report released
by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and EngenderHealth,
Obstetric Fistula Needs Assessment: Findings from Nine African
Countries. The report determines the capacity of 35 hospitals in Benin,
Chad, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda, and Zambia to treat
patients with obstetric fistula and assess their need for additional
supplies, staff, and surgical supplies.
Obstetric fistula is a horrible condition. More than two million
woman world-wide are living in shame and suffering with this
devastating condition, which results from obstructed labor during
childbirth. In the United States and the rest of the developed world,
fistula was once as common as it is now in Africa--the Waldorf Astoria
in New York was built on the site of a fistula repair hospital. But
Caesarean section changed history in the wealthier countries, and it is
now our automatic response to obstructed labor. In poor areas of Africa
and elsewhere, where health care is scarce and where undernourished and
stunted young girls may be required to marry before their bodies have
matured, a pregnant woman (usually a young girl) may be in agonizing
labor for days. The baby usually dies, and if the woman survives, her
birth canal may be damaged, creating an opening between her vagina and
her bladder or her rectum, sometimes both. The result is an
uncontrollable leakage of urine or feces, or both. The women is
constantly wet and highly unpleasant; she suffers recurrent infections
and shame, and is usually abandoned and ostracized by her community. No
one knows the true extent of this problem, for the women tend to hide,
not knowing that help is available--from programs supported by UNFPA.
Fortunately, UNFPA provides the very maternal health care that helps
save the lives of women and their babies and avoids medical
complications like fistula. I have always said that USAID does
important work, but one thing they don't do is prevent and combat the
incidence of fistula. In my opinion, it is a terrible lapse on the part
of our government and gives added incentive and reason to fund UNFPA.
This amendment is a positive compromise. If it has been ruled in
order, I am confident that this is the kind of program that no one
would object to. It would have been a dramatic initiative demonstrating
a commitment to Africa' poor and in particular to saving the lives of
African women. Providing funding to UNFPA to fight fistula would have
shown immediate results in the form of thousands of grateful women
whose lives could resume. And it would have resolved the contentious
issue of UNFPA funding that has repeatedly stalled the passage of
urgent State Department initiatives and international aid programs
worldwide.
Once again, I would like to say that I am very disappointed that the
full House will not be allowed to consider this important, thoughtful
compromise that will help save the lives of millions of women around
the world.
I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the
balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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