[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 24564]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 24564]]

 CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2606, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, 
             AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. ROBERT WEXLER

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 1999

  Mr. WEXLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Foreign 
Operations conference report.
  America loses when we fail to properly fund our foreign operations 
budget. The report we are considering is almost $2 billion below the 
level requested by President Clinton and $1 billion below last year's 
budget.
  Without adequate funding for our international affairs operations, we 
will not be equipped to protect the security and the prosperity of 
Americans at home and abroad, and we risk losing our status as the 
world's remaining superpower.
  American foreign policy should not embrace the short-sighted views of 
isolationists. Instead, we should meet the myriad of challenges facing 
the global community. America is at its best when we promote our values 
abroad by supporting struggling democracies and their efforts to make 
the transition to market economies.
  Mr. Speaker, this conference report provides no Wye Aid funding which 
we promised our partners in the Middle East. It fails to provide 
adequate funding for emerging democracies in Africa and fails to assist 
our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. It also ignores the needs of 
Asian countries recovering from financial devastation.
  But the greatest disgrace of this conference report is our failure to 
lend a helping hand to the world's children. The children of Sierra 
Leone, for example, who have suffered the violent amputation of their 
limbs, sexual abuse, displacement from their homes, and the ravaging to 
their innocence and youth, lose yet again when we cut our foreign aid 
and humanitarian assistance. Programs to provide them food and medical 
intervention and to return them to their homes and neighborhoods can 
never succeed. And yet, what greater humanitarian purpose can our 
foreign policy serve than to bring prosthetic arms and hands to babies 
whose entire lives lie ahead of them?
  I urge my colleagues to join me today and defeat this poorly funded 
conference report. America's front line of foreign policy should not be 
shortchanged.

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