Dan Burton

Mr. BURTON of Indiana

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I rise to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I may be a voice in the wilderness, but I do not agree with all of my colleagues who have preceded me. Mr. Chairman, Turkey has been an ally of the United States through thick and thin. In the Persian Gulf war we had our bases in Turkey. During the Persian Gulf war they cut the Iraqi pipeline and hurt their economy dramatically. During the war in Somalia, Turkey sent their troops there to help us. In fact, Turkey has been with us as a NATO ally from day No. 1, day No. 2, day No. 3, day No. 4, but we seem to have a penchant in this Congress of kicking our friends in the teeth and embracing those who are not our friends. Now, let me give my colleagues some facts about Turkey and about the Armenian problem that have not been discussed today. First of all, Turkey recognized Armenia immediately after its independence from the Soviet Union and publicly stated its willingness to establish good neighborly relations with Armenia. Top level Armenian and Turkish officials continue right now discussing bilateral relations. Turkey closed its land border with Armenia only after Armenia escalated the cargo conflict by invading Azerbaijan proper. That is when they closed the border, after they invaded Azerbaijan proper. Currently 20 percent of Azerbaijan is occupied by Armenian forces. One-fifth of Azerbaijan is occupied by Armenian forces. Turkey's position is consistent with its opposition to territorial gain through the use of force. Turkey was one of the first countries to condemn Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and to participate in the Iraqi embargo, and it cost Turkey, get this, them working with us, cost Turkey over $20 billion. Turkey's participation was crucial in the allied success of the gulf crisis. It is inaccurate to say that Armenia does not receive humanitarian assistance because of Turkey. Container transit shipments occur via Izmir and the Turkish Straits to Batum, Georgia, only a few kilometers away from the nearest Turkish port. Transit passage between the two countries continues. Armenian Airlines conduct weekly flights from Yerevan to Istanbul. Armenians can travel to Turkey freely, conducting suitcase trade. Those who purport a different reality should provide concrete figures to support their arguments. Turkey has made efforts to normalize relations with Armenia. As a goodwill gesture in April 1995, Turkey opened air corridor H-50 connecting Erzurum to Yerevan. Soon after taking office, Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz announced Turkey will open its border with Armenia provided, there is a bilateral agreement on the declaration of principles. Turkey is an active member of the Minsk group and plays a key role in achieving this goal. As the only remaining superpower in a world threatened by ethnic strife, the United States must maintain impartiality in order to be a constructive influence in containing and resolving these conflicts. Perceived United States partiality in the Caucasus would undermine progress in ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijan talks. Further, the power of the President to execute foreign policy consistent with national security interests should not be curtailed by Congress. Foreign assistance to Turkey has been drastically reduced in the last 5 years. Now, let me say, the Turkish Parliament will consider the extension of Operation Provide Comfort in June. Adoption of an anti-Turkish amendment like this one will adversely affect the vote on its mandate. Such amendments also insult the Turkish people and raise questions in Turkish public opinion about the strength of the United States-Turkish partnership, thereby endangering the pursuit of common goals in such volatile regions of the world. Let me just end up by saying, Turkey, I want to state one more time, may be like the United States, imperfect in some regard, but Turkey has been there every single time we needed them. I see some of my colleagues nodding their heads saying yes, but, but, but. But they were there when we needed them in the Persian Gulf. They were there in Somalia, they were there in Korea. They were there every time, in NATO, base rights, cutting off oil, $20 billion in losses to their own economy to help us and to help the free world. Now, my colleagues need to think long and hard and make absolutely sure the are doing the right thing before they kick them in the teeth.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I say to the gentleman from Texas, ``Thank you very much.'' Let me just conclude then, if the amendment is going to be accepted. What my amendment does is it says on page 95, line 12, that the administration must give a report before any additional money goes to Haiti on the murders of Ms. Bertin, Mr. Gonzalez, and Mr. Feuille in addition to other political assassinations that may have taken place. I want to thank my colleague for agreeing to accept the amendment. I presume that my colleague, the chairman of the subcommittee, will accept it as well.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, last fall we had a hearing on Haiti, and during that hearing we had the administration's point man, Ambassador James Dobbins, appear before the committee, and we asked him about the progress that was being made about the FBI investigation into the murders, the political murders that were taking place in Haiti, particularly the murder of Ms. Bertin, which took place in broad daylight in downtown Port-au-Prince. We subsequently found out during that hearing that Mr. Dobbins misled the committee. In fact, he lied to the committee. He said that the people in the Embassy down there, particularly himself, was not aware of FBI information that indicated that the Aristide government might have been involved in the murder of Ms. Bertin. The FBI agent that was in charge was sitting at the table with him and indicated that everybody at the Embassy had been notified about the investigation and that there was no cooperation from the Aristide government. The fact of the matter is there have been a lot of political assassinations that have taken place in Haiti, and none of these people connected with the government has ever been brought to justice. As a matter of fact, there were 13 people that allegedly had something to do with Ms. Bertin's death in the Haitian Government down there, and the government itself defended those people with government-sponsored lawyers. Now, in addition to that, our general in charge knew about the potential assassination of Ms. Bertin prior to her being killed, and instead of telling her and her family that she was a target for assassination, they went to Mr. Aristide's government, and that is like going to somebody who has a gun pointed at them telling them they might get shot. The fact of the matter is the Aristide government is believed to have been behind the assassination of Ms. Bertin and our general down there was talking directly to them instead of Ms. Bertin herself.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. So they are just being postponed indefinitely subject to the call of the Chair?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, there is no time specific?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If I might make a further parliamentary inquiry, as I understood it, we were going to be able to call votes after 2:30; is that not correct?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, to what time in the day are we postponing the vote?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote, and pending that I make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, when we cut 200 jobs out of 8,000, that is one-quarter of 1 percent, and you keep saying you are going to hand the checks to the Rotary Club to give that money away, that is a ludicrous thing to say. The fact of the matter is that 200 people out of 8,000 is nothing. That bureaucracy is top-heavy over there. We need to cut it to the bone.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, they have over 8,000 employees, and you are cutting 200. They have 8,000 employees, and you are talking about these children survival programs. I am not cutting the children survival programs. I am cutting the administrative overhead of the agency. They have 8,000 employees, and that does not include the contractors that they have outside that they have hired. Now, I am very happy that the gentleman, and he is my good friend, was able to cut 200 jobs, but that is not nearly enough. The bureaucracy over there is out of control. I just read what one of the leaders said about having to blow more money so that they could get more money. The fact of the matter is, we ought to be cutting AID's administrative costs dramatically, not just to do away with a lot of unnecessary bureaucrats over there, which the taxpayers do not want to support, but secondly, to send a signal to them that we do not want this kind of attitude that they have had in the past.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, I certainly agree. We are not cutting AID to the bone. We are cutting out the fat in my amendments, and what we are doing is sending a signal. Seventy-four percent, the gentleman is a taxpayer and so am I, 74 percent of the American people in a recent poll did not want any foreign aid. So the American people and the taxpayers are against it. So we have to spend their money very judiciously and in my opinion AID wastes a heck of a lot of it.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman would just indulge me a moment, I want to read something. Sally Shelton, you have heard me say this before but I think it needs to be said again, she is a senior staffer at AID. Here is what she said. We have the documentation of this, which I brought before the committee: ``Larry Byrne (Assistant Administrator for Management at AID) said that AID was 62 percent through this fiscal year and we have 38 percent of the dollar volume of procurement actions completed; we need to do,'' or spend, ``$1.9 billion in the next 5 months.'' ``There are large pockets of money in the field * * * so let's get moving.'' Then if you look at a list, and I had a whole litany which I read into the Congressional Record a few minutes ago of wasteful projects, spending projects around the world in Burundi, in Africa, in Central America, Nicaragua, El Salvador and elsewhere, where we have waived millions and billions of dollars. Here we see that the head of the administration, one of the leaders over there, is saying that we have to spend another $1.9 billion in the next 3 to 4 months, otherwise we probably will not get more money next year. The problem is, until we come down hard on the administration of this agency, we are never going to cut that spending, and the American taxpayer does not like foreign aid anyhow, and when there is waste, fraud and abuse, they want something done about it.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Chairman, let me just say because some of my colleagues caved in to a higher figure on the other side does not make it right. That is why I want to cut it now.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. That was the conference committee report.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I just cited in my opening remarks that it was raised in conference to $465 million. I did not agree with that. I think that is excessive. I think the committee of jurisdiction and authorizing made the right decision. That is why I support the cut.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. If the gentleman will yield further, he is in the House appropriations subcommittee that deals with this. Why would he not take into consideration what the authorizing committee came up with?

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. It has been a while.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. The House authorization committee, the Committee on International Relations, made a recommendation.

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. No, there was not.