[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17418-17419]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        PROVIDING AID FOR AFRICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gerlach). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, it is always a good thing when the President 
visits a neglected continent, and so I am very glad that President Bush 
finally got to Africa; but we must recognize and understand the history 
of the United States policy and the United States involvement with 
Africa in order to use this moment to develop a positive, forward-
moving agenda that is mutually beneficial.
  First of all, the United States has significantly in the past 
contributed to the underdevelopment of Africa and has been benefited 
from the geopolitical manipulation of Africa and its

[[Page 17419]]

leaders, and that is a fact. In the past, the United States has 
endorsed and funded the regimes of dictators. It has secured and 
disbursed loans that have left Africa Nations to this day struggling 
with debt; and it has created a cycle of dependence that has left 
Africa importing resources, aid, and military support from others. That 
is a fact.
  This cycle of dependency, however, can be broken if the United States 
would work with Africans instead of against them. Peace, however, is a 
prerequisite for development. There can be no nation-building without 
peace. Strengthening Africa's peacekeeping capacity is the only 
solution to limiting outbreaks of civil conflict and preventing them 
from spreading to other parts of the region.
  In turn, our investment in peace would not only protect our foreign 
aid investment but would also strengthen and secure an environment for 
African democracy.
  Today, Africans are getting poorer and hungrier, and conflict and HIV 
and AIDS really threaten the survival of entire nations that the 
breakdown of African communities is causing and the breakdown of state 
and regional governance. This breakdown really has created an 
opportunity for opportunistic individuals, companies and nations, 
including the United States, to exploit the absence of state authority 
and governing institutions and the natural resources vital to the 
economic and development and growth of a nation.
  According to World Bank reports, poverty in Africa remains rampant. 
During the 1990s, the numbers of poor people on the continent living on 
less than $1 per day, $1 mind you per day, rose from 241 million to 315 
million in 1999. The World Bank now estimates that by 2015 this number 
will be approximately 404 million. Why are the numbers of poor and 
impoverished Africans going up? We have to ask the question of our own 
government, is the United States really committed to ending global 
poverty and promoting democracy?
  I am pleased again, as I said earlier, that President Bush is 
visiting the African continent, but I just wonder why he is not 
visiting a hunger-stricken country like Ethiopia or Zambia.
  Development assistance continues to be underfunded in our budget. 
Budgets of international programs, especially for Africa, have been 
moved into budgets for rebuilding Iraq. I believe that the United 
States should rebuild countries that it bombs, but it should not rob 
Peter to pay Paul. For this one country, the United States will invest 
over half a billion dollars for a little over 24 million people in 
Iraq, while the entire foreign assistance budget for 54 African 
countries, with over 858 million Africans, will be a measly $2 billion. 
That is an embarrassment and a real dismal dismissal of our history, 
heritage, and international significance for Africans and African 
Americans worldwide.
  As I said earlier, I believe that the United States should help 
rebuild countries that we bomb and destroy, but we should find new 
money to do this. Otherwise, rebuilding a nation such as Iraq comes at 
a price.
  The Bush administration has proposed decreases in several critical 
accounts in the 2004 Africa budget which will negatively impact 
Africa's long-term economic and political development efforts. So it 
appears that rebuilding Iraq, of course, is much more vital to the 
international community than the lowered nutritional status of Africans 
and the higher incidence of preventable illnesses like HIV and AIDS.
  I urge our appropriators here to minimally step up to the plate and 
fully fund the $3 billion in HIV and AIDS money that we authorize 
tomorrow while the President is in Africa so that he can at least 
deliver on his promise to attack the HIV/AIDS pandemic in a real way.

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