[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                              DEBT RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, this coming weekend, from July 20 to July 
22, President George W. Bush will be meeting with the heads of 
government at the G-8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, to discuss international 
economic issues. I urge the President to support the complete 
cancellation of the debts that the world's poorest countries owe the 
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
  The Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, referred to 
as HIPC, was developed in 1999 to provide debt relief to the world's 
poorest countries. The HIPC Initiative requires countries to invest the 
savings from debt relief in HIV-AIDS treatment and prevention, health 
care, education, and poverty reduction programs.
  Unfortunately, the IMF and the World Bank have not provided their 
fair share of debt relief. While the United States agreed to cancel 100 
percent of the debts owed by poor countries, the IMF and the World Bank 
have agreed to reduce these countries' debts by less than half. As a 
result, the countries that have begun to receive debt relief have seen 
their debt payments reduced by an average of only 27 percent. Most of 
these countries are still spending more money on debt payments than 
they are on health care.
  Zambia provides an excellent illustration of what is wrong with the 
approach of the IMF and the World Bank. Zambia is a deeply impoverished 
country with a per capita income of only $330. The infant mortality 
rate exceeds 1 percent of live births, and 27 percent of Zambian 
children under 5 are malnourished. Zambia has also been ravaged by the 
HIV-AIDS pandemic. Almost 10 percent of the population is infected with 
the AIDS virus and 650,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS.
  AIDS has also ravaged the educational system by causing a shortage of 
trained teachers. Yet Zambia's debt payments have actually increased 
following the receipt of debt relief. Moreover, Zambia spends more than 
twice as much money on debt payments as it does on health care.
  How can the International Monetary Fund tell countries like Zambia to 
use savings from debt relief for poverty reduction when the IMF knows 
there is no savings?
  On April 26, 2001, I introduced H.R. 1642, the Debt Cancellation for 
the New Millennium Act. This bill would require the IMF and the World 
Bank to provide complete cancellation of 100 percent of the debts owed 
to them by all 32 impoverished countries that are expected to qualify 
for the HIPC Initiative. The bill would also allow three additional 
impoverished countries, Bangladesh Haiti, and Nigeria, to participate 
in the HIPC Initiative. Furthermore, the bill would prohibit the 
imposition of user fees for education and health services and other 
structural adjustment programs as conditions for debt relief. Seventy-
six Members of Congress representing both political parties have 
cosponsored this bill.
  The IMF and the World Bank have sufficient resources to completely 
wipe away poor countries' debts. It is time for the IMF and the World 
Bank to do their share to make debt relief a reality for poor countries 
and their people. It is time for the IMF and the World Bank to allow 
these countries to invest their resources in health, education, and the 
elimination of poverty.
  I urge President Bush and the world leaders who attend the G-8 summit 
to tell the IMF and the World Bank to completely cancel 100 percent of 
the debts of the world's most impoverished countries once and for all.

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