Jim Kolbe

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Kennedyville, Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) who is from the Eastern Shore, and over there common sense is the rule of the day. So I am anxious to hear what he has to say.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Huntington Beach, California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, could I ask for an accounting of the time before I move that we rise so that we can be ready for tomorrow?

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Before moving for the committee to rise, I would like to take just a few moments. Mr. Chairman, I think this has been an instructive and helpful debate here tonight. But as I have listened to many of the speakers, I am reminded of my own visit to Iraq just about 8 weeks ago. In several different places, security officers who were accompanying us, troops that were out there in the field that we talked to at the mess hall, people that we talked to in different places, over and over again the message I heard from those soldiers was the same; and they said, please go back and tell the American people that it is not what is being reported. They are also seeing CNN over there. It is not what is being reported on the news; it is much better than what they hear on the news; there are councils that are being elected; there are businesses that are being opened; there are people who are beginning to see livelihoods come back; people have the opportunity to speak out on the streets and speak out against the United States and speak out against the Coalition and speak out against their own governing council. That is something they never had the opportunity to do for all those years under Saddam Hussein. So the message that I heard from our soldiers was please go back and tell them that this is a war worth fighting. The question has been raised here tonight as to how it is going to be paid for. We have heard that over and over again. It is a legitimate question. But I would suggest to my colleagues that this is going to be paid for in the same way that we paid for World War I, the same way we paid for World War II, and for Korea and for Vietnam and for the first Gulf War, and for all the other conflicts that we have been involved with all these years. The money is borrowed. It is with the full faith and credit of the American people who believe in liberty, who believe in democracy, who believe in freedom for themselves and for peoples around the world that we undertake this burden of debt in order that others around the world may be free. I would note that the percentage of debt that we are incurring is a fraction of what we incurred in past wars. Yes, it is a lot of money. But can anybody doubt, can anybody doubt that this fight against terrorism is any less important than the struggle we fought against in World War I, or the struggle we had against Fascism and Nazism and against Japanese imperialism in World War II? Is it any less important than what we fought against in Korea in the 1950s? I would say, no, Mr. Chairman, it is not less important. This is just as important. This war on terrorism is a defining moment for the United States and for the American people, and we have no choice but that we must win. And let me close with this thought, because many have said, yes, I support our troops in the field, but I really do not think we should be spending this money on the reconstruction. I asked that question very specifically of General Abizaid when he appeared before our subcommittee, the CentCom commander, and General Abizaid said, ``Make no mistake about it, you cannot separate what we are spending on reconstruction from what we spend on our military. Every dollar we spend on the reconstruction is just as important to the safety and the security of our troops in Iraq as the money that is spent on ammunition, that is spent on flak vests, that is spent on armor for our vehicles.'' It is just as important. We must win this war by winning the war of reconstruction, by winning the civilian part of this war. Mr. Chairman, we will have more opportunity to discuss these matters again tomorrow as we go into general debate on the bill and then as we proceed with amendments, and I hope the debate will be an enlightening one and one that will help Members come to a good decision about what America should be doing in this region. There is no doubt in my mind what the right course of action for this body and for the United States is.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I continue to reserve my time.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I want to respond to one thing that was said by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) when she said that there was no money in this bill that would protect our soldiers in Iraq. I am sure she just may not be aware, has not had time to examine the bill or the report carefully enough, but let me just remind my colleagues that, as contained in the report here, I am reading from the report, and this is the language that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), the ranking member and the chairman of the defense subcommittees, who have three-fourths of the dollars put into this bill, and that is the language of their report, they say, The committee recommends significant increases in this bill to purchase protective body armor, improve portable radio frequency jammers, spare parts, and other critical items.'' Moreover, the committee directs the Department, and, in particular, the Army, to fully fund requirements identified under the Soldier Enhancement Program, the Centralized Funding and Fielding Activity, and other accounts designed to expeditiously field new equipment to soldiers. The committee directs the Department to use funds approved in this measure to increase the availability of modern hydration systems to soldiers in the Iraq theater. So, Mr. Chairman, it is simply not accurate to say that there is not money in this legislation which would enhance the protection and the quality of life of our soldiers who are serving us so well in Iraq. There is money in there, there is a significant amount of money in there. And the defense subcommittee has shown that it is very aware of the problems that have existed there and have addressed it with the legislation that we have before us this evening. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus). (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Concord, North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Highland Village, Texas (Mr. Burgess).

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, would you give us the amount of time remaining on debate.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Phoenix, Arizona (Mr. Shadegg), my friend and colleague.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 4\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Marietta, Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Jo Ann Davis). (Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), a member of the committee. (Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), another member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Green Bay, Wisconsin (Mr. Green). Few Members of this body have a greater appreciation or understanding of America's role in the world, for he himself was a former Peace Corps member.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Before I yield to my colleague from Michigan, let me just make a couple of comments. First of all, I want to thank the gentlewoman from New York for her thoughtful statement. I have had the privilege these last 3 years to work with the gentlewoman from New York as the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs, and she and I have, she would be the first to concede, have not always agreed on every policy issue, but we have approached the legislation, the bill, each time, whether it has been the regular appropriation bill or the supplemental appropriation bill, we have approached it in the spirit of compromise, and we have approached it in the spirit of bipartisanship because we both believe very strongly that when it comes to our foreign policy, partisanship ends at the shores of this country. It has been truly a great joy to work with the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), and I want to thank her publicly for that. Mr. Chairman, I will also have more remarks of my own tomorrow when we get to the general debate under the rule for this bill. Once more before I yield, I would also like to thank, though he is no longer here, the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the Chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives for his extremely cogent and thoughtful statement. There are few people in this body that have been such leaders for liberty, democracy and freedom around the world, that have been voices for those basic American values as has the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde). So when he speaks on an issue such as the funding for Iraq reconstruction and for our military in Iraq, he speaks, I think, with a voice of certainty and a voice of authority that it would do well for all of us to listen to. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Knollenberg), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from LeMoyne, Nebraska (Mr. Osborne).

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume just to respond to one thing that was said here. Mr. Chairman, the gentlewoman from Ohio made note of the fact that we were actually handing out cash in Iraq and wondering what the heck that was for and how we could account for that. I think it is worth noting that a couple of years ago, when I visited Mozambique after the huge, horrendous floods there, we found that a very creative and innovative way of actually providing for relief from the flood, instead of going around and handing out pots and pans or aluminum or wood for rebuilding their house, to give them actually cash and they made decisions about how they would use it. We gave it to the woman of the household. It turned out to be a very creative and innovative way of handling immediate kinds of relief. Apparently what was creative and innovative in the previous administration is now a bad thing in this administration. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Watertown, Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 6 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate Congressman Hayworth's concern on the issue of medical care for undocumented aliens. He and I are both from Arizona. We know very well the concerns of our state. Together, we are actively working to get the federal government to compensate state and local governments along the border for the costs resulting from illegal immigration or undocumented entries along the border. There is currently no federal or state policy to reimburse medical care providers for their treatment of illegal immigrants not in custody or who do not possess proof of residency in Arizona. During the past six years, Arizona has experienced a drastic surge in illegal immigration due to recent policy of sealing off Texas and California borders. Therefore, Arizona hospitals and ambulance service providers have had to shoulder an increasingly harsh economic burden. If we fail to act quickly, our hospitals will go bankrupt leaving the citizens in many areas of Arizona without access to medical care. Just this week, I introduced H.R. 2807, The Border Hospital Survival and Illegal Immigrant Care Act. This legislation aims to address the shortcomings created by Immigration and Naturalization Service policy instructing the Border Patrol to not apprehend illegal immigrants injured in the process of crossing the border thereby avoiding financial responsibility. It is a bipartisan effort being supported by several Republicans and Democrats across the border region, including Representatives Reyes, Filner, Pastor, Renzi, and Grijalva. I know the intent of Congressman Hayworth's floor amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill is to get greater Mexican attention and resources on this issue. I think that is appropriate. There is an innovative pilot project underway that may actually yield commitment on a larger scale from the Mexican government on these issues. Just recently USAID contributed resources to establish a triage and stabilization unit at the General Hospital in Nogales, Sonora located in Mexico just across from Nogales, Arizona. This unit would seek to take care of most emergency medical needs of Mexican citizens on the Mexican side of the border in Nogales, Sonora. I encouraged and supported this leadership by USAID and the U.S. government. In the spirit of public private partnerships, its funding composition has several components: $350,000 from USAID/Mexico and a USAID Global Health agreement with EngenderHealth, a U.S. NGO, Nearly $200,000 of cost-sharing support from Arizona partner organizations, principally the USAID grantee, Tucson's University Medical Center Foundation, 2,000,000 pesos from Mexican Federal and State Government, and 1,000,000 pesos from local Mexican business association. I recognize the goal of Congressman Hayworth and I appreciate his willingness to withdraw the floor amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill. As I continue to work on this issue, I would propose that he and I work together to bring greater focus to this important issue. Cooperation in support of Mexico's economic and social development and its consolidation of democratic institutions and practices ranks high in the range of U.S. policy interests. This national interest of the U.S. mirrors what is in our intense local Arizona interest. I plan to work with the distinguished Member of Arizona on this issue. In the near future, I hope you can consider co-sponsoring H.R. 2807, The Border Hospital Survival and Illegal Immigrant Care Act.

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, and I want to commend him and the members of the Committee on Ways and Means for bringing forward these two free trade agreements with Chile and with Singapore and to commend our U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Zoellick, for the outstanding work that he has done to get us here. I think I look on this as a very singular accomplishment for the United States. I remember back a few years ago traveling to Chile shortly after the adoption of the NAFTA agreement and its implementation. I went at the behest of the then-Speaker of the House Mr. Gingrich to talk about trade, and there was so much anticipation and so much excitement about the possibility of a free trade agreement; and I felt confident at that time that we would have what we then called fast track authority and now trade promotion authority for the President so these agreements could be negotiated quickly. Of course, as we know now, it was not to be, and it has only been in the last year that the President has had this authority. But today, we are seeing for the first time in a decade agreements brought to the floor of the House of Representatives that have been negotiated using this authority of the President. Today, for the first time, we are seeing the beginning of what I believe will be a very robust period of American trade agreements that will begin to open markets for America around the world and begin to open markets in the United States for other countries as well, to make it possible for other countries to have access to our markets, to make it possible for our consumers to have more choices, to make it possible for American workers to have jobs that can allow for the export of manufactured goods and the export of services as well. That is what these agreements are all about. They are about enhancing the lives of people not only in this country, but around the world. The Singapore Free Trade Agreement is one that is especially important, I think, to the United States because it marks the first free trade agreement we have with an East Asian country. Ninety-nine percent of all the trade of goods in Singapore is already tariff free, and so this agreement helps us by removing some restrictions on some of the other things we have not had open yet, and that is mostly service. Singapore, like the United States, even more than the United States, is a tremendously service-oriented economy. There is not a lot of manufacturing, as we know, in Singapore. It is about trading, and it is about services; and opening up that economy to those kinds of services is extraordinarily important. Eighty percent of our GDP depends on those kinds of services. Singapore, despite its tiny size, is the 12th largest trading partner of the United States. It has a two-way trade in goods and services of nearly $40 billion, and this free trade agreement will enhance and strengthen this trade relationship. I have already mentioned that there are new opportunities for U.S. service providers. U.S. negotiators in this agreement secured key protections in a framework and had minimal carve-outs, that is, the other side reserved only very small things from the application of the free trade agreement. Our investment in Singapore was over $27 billion last year. This will create a predictable legal framework that U.S. investors can operate in in Singapore to be sure that they are being treated as favorably as local investors; and they will also have access to meaningful dispute settlements. Mr. Speaker, one of the very important aspects of this is to have dispute settlements so that when we do have disagreements in our trade, whether it is at services or manufacturing, we can settle these agreements in a fashion that allows trade to move forward. We know all too well what happens when we do not have that kind of opportunity. Mr. Speaker, I believe that this agreement is in the best interests of the United States and of Singapore and of the world, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. KOLBE

Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for the concerns that she has expressed here about the Inter-American Foundation. I do support the valuable work of the foundation and the fact that it promotes entrepreneurship, self-reliance, democratic principles, as well as the economic progress for the poor in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The committee funded the Inter-American Foundation at the President's requested level, as the gentlewoman noted. The funding level is not higher in this bill because of the low budget allocation that the subcommittee received, a level that is $1 million lower than the Senate subcommittee has to work with, and it is certainly not intended to show anything but full support for the Inter-American Foundation. I recognize that it is important that the Inter-American Foundation experiences steady funding to ensure the viability of the crucial program that the gentlewoman has discussed. If the subcommittee receives a higher budget allocation in conference, I will certainly work to support an increased funding level for this program.