[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          DEBT RELIEF FOR IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2482, the Iraqi 
Freedom from Debt Act, but first I would like to respond to the 
gentleman's statement that Democrats want to raise taxes. That is not 
true. The Kerry-Biden bill calls for a repeal of only the top 1 
percent. This would result in $600 billion, and this would pay for the 
$87 billion for the challenge in Iraq. Some Democrats support that. I 
am one of those, but I disagree with the statement from the gentleman 
who preceded me.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise really in support of one of the administration's 
spokesmen, Mr. Paul Bremer, and he said that it would be a mistake to 
lay any more debt onto the backs of the Iraqi people, and he wisely 
added that there would be no way that the Government of Iraq will be 
able to pay Iraq's current debt. Mr. Bremer estimates that Iraq owes 
over $100 billion to other nations as a result of Saddam Hussein's 
irresponsible borrowing, and how can we expect Iraq to begin paying on 
this debt when the challenges of funding reconstruction are so steep? 
The Financial Times reported: ``Even assuming a resumption of oil 
exports at 2 million barrels a day, Iraq's debt-to-export ratio would 
exceed 700 percent, the highest in the world. Clearly, Iraq cannot 
rebuild its economy, establish conditions for growth and development 
and,'' also, ``service all its outstanding debt.''
  It is impossible to imagine that the people of Iraq will be able to 
reconstruct a future if they are forced to pay for their own oppression 
by paying back odious debt accrued by this regime for his 34 palaces 
and other expenses that helped his immediate family and circle and not 
the people of Iraq.
  We learned from World War II reconstruction that the most effective 
way to ensure regional security and facilitate a friendship with the 
people of a once-hostile nation was to provide debt cancellation and 
new aid for reconstruction. We learned this lesson the hard way after 
World War I when Hitler campaigned for his election on a platform that 
included working towards the cancellation of the debts Germany accrued 
during reconstruction after the First World War. The allies did not 
want to repeat that mistake after World War II, and let us learn from 
this history and provide the same support to Iraq by urging for 
creditors to cancel Iraq's debt.
  The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are priority 
creditors, creditors that will be paid first, and leaders in the 
creditor community. It is our responsibility as key stakeholders at the 
World Bank and IMF to encourage these institutions to take the first 
step for debt cancellation for Iraq. The IMF and World Bank are owed 
relatively little by Iraq, only about $150 million. So while it would 
not be a burden on the institutions, because $150 million to these 
organizations is not a lot of money, this act of generosity could 
leverage reduction of the debt of Iraq by other creditors.
  The IMF and World Bank are meeting at this moment in Dubai discussing 
Iraq and the debt of the most impoverished countries in the world. Join 
me in calling on these institutions to take action on Iraq's debt by 
cosponsoring H.R. 2482, the Iraqi Freedom from Debt Act. It is a 
bipartisan legislation that I introduced with the gentleman from Iowa 
(Mr. Leach), and it states that the U.S. should work within the IMF and 
World Bank to encourage the institutions to reduce debts owed by Iraq. 
It also contains a ``Sense of Congress'' urging countries around the 
world to reduce debt. Without reducing Iraq's debt, our investment of 
aid and loans in Iraq will simply be recycled into debt service payment 
to other creditors.
  When Ambassador Bremer spoke before this Congress, he supported this 
legislation and this effort, and when I joined with the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) in Iraq, visiting Baghdad and Tikrit and 
Mosul, we met with Ambassador Kennedy, his deputy. He likewise 
supported this legislation as a step in the right direction.
  In order to rebuild Iraq, we must forgive this debt, most of which is 
odious, for purposes that did not help the Iraqi people. So I urge my 
colleagues to cosponsor the Iraqi Freedom from Debt Act and work 
towards rebuilding Iraq.

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