Donald Payne

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, the reason for the confusion was that last night we requested that this particular amendment be withdrawn and that the previous resolution asking for UNITA to have any country doing business with them withdrawn. So this amendment we would ask to be withdrawn. That is why the confusion came about. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would ask that that amendment be withdrawn.

Mr. PAYNE. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the gentleman reconsider his point of order. I believe that this is in keeping with what we have in this section of the legislation. But in addition to that, I think it is only the right thing to do. As we have indicated, people controlled by UNITA's area are selling diamonds, creating havoc; and I think that if the gentleman would reconsider, this should be inserted. It is not actually legislating; it is simply stating the sense of what is right should be included and was overlooked.

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Although the importance of this matter in this dialogue I believe sort of ought to be considered, the fact that we are making the request I assume would be considered an earmark. I think that the importance of it is so great I would hope that there would be some opportunity within the committee for some discussion on this matter. Because with six countries at war and we are talking $500,000 that could possibly have the withdraw of these countries because of the dialogue within the country I think would, hopefully, be able to work it in some way in some language so that it does not violate the question of being an earmark.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the amendment that I have offered is an amendment that would provide assistance to the people of southern Sudan. At this time we have seen in Sudan a government from Khartoum that is a pariah government, the government of al-Bahsir and Mr. Tarrabi, a government that had wreaked havoc on the people to the south. And the group of the South Sudanese Liberation Movement have been struggling for years attempting to protect the people in the south. The people in the south are taken into slavery and they are sold. It is unconscionable what is going on there. We have seen old Russian planes used to bomb stable communities in the south. And so we are asking that the administration give authority to provide non-lethal and non-food assistance to the National Democratic Alliance, which is a group of organizations in the south of Sudan in order to provide protection to the civilians who are targeted by government soldiers and by their militias, their allies, the persons who are doing aerial bombing and forcing displacement of people and taking people into slavery. We are finally starting to see a groundswell in the country of people talking about the fact that we can no longer look the other way at what is happening in Sudan. It is disgraceful. It is something that we can no longer tolerate. We have to give assistance to folks in that particular area so that they can at least move forward in attempting to provide protection to the people. As I have indicated, we are talking about non-lethal, non-food but ways that the folks in that area can be assisted by the National Democratic Alliance.

Mr. PAYNE. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I understand what the gentleman has said, although it appears I was not asking for a line item. I am just simply indicating that we are not asking to specifically earmark by line item, but in the allocation of the funds that were in the development assistance fund it was always understood that we would have a floor of $700 million to $800 million. It is my understanding that, with the way the funds are being allocated now, the floor has dropped. So I have not asked for a specific line item for DFA. I am simply asking that in the development fund, that funds for Africa that will be allocated and that we attempt to stay at least where we were in the past. That is all I am requesting.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time and simply say that I would hope that that last statement from the gentlewoman from California, in a time when we have escalating profits, when we have people who are making billions and millions of dollars, the number of millionaires they do not even keep any more, I hope her statement would indicate for my colleagues that it is the wrong time for us to turn our backs when we take 100 million here and 200 million there. We can afford it. We can do better. God has blessed this Nation, we should not turn our back on him.

Mr. PAYNE. Yes, Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is absolutely right. The gentleman is correct. We will ask the Chairman if we could, then, move to the one that is in this section. Mr. Chairman, if we could ask the Clerk to read the amendment.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and wish to close by indicating that we feel that we have seen recent success with elections in Senegal; we have seen elections in Nigeria; we have seen current elections in Mozambique. We have seen successes. As I indicated, we had $800 million in 1993, and 1994 $850 million, and now we have reduced the allocations of DFA down to $500 million. It is really a step backwards. It is unconscionable. It really does not keep up with what is going on. It is unbelievable to try to understand why this is. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise to request that the important Development Assistance Fund, which is a fund that much of the appropriations for development assistance around the world is a very important instrument for development in Africa. The House has taken a step backwards by eliminating the earmark for the Development Fund for Africa which was in legislation up until 1994. But we are not asking for the earmark to be replaced since it was removed. But we are asking that $220 million be added into the Development Assistance Fund, which would fall under the Development Assistance Fund for Africa, the DFA, although we are not asking for the earmark. Now, what I am saying is simply that, during the 1990s, 1993 and 1994, when the development from the DFA was designated, we actually appropriated $850 million in 1994, $804 million in 1993. So we had a continued increase in the Development Fund for Africa. The 1998 level was $700 million. In 1999, it was approximately $700 million. This year, it has dropped to approximately $500 million. So we are asking that $220 million be allocated within the Development Assistance to be earmarked for Africa. It seems, as we have been talking about all of the problems in Africa, we have been talking about the AIDS pandemic, we have been talking about the need for loan forgiveness, it seems like it is a move in the wrong direction to reduce the Development Fund for Africa, the monies that are designated, although not earmarked, because these funds go to assist in famine prevention. They go in to helping dialogue in countries to ward off ethnic strife. They go into many very, very important issues that help to make stable countries in Africa. I might mention that, during the last decade, about 85 to 90 percent of the nations in Africa have gone under democratization. We have had elections in practically every country. Many people have the misconception that there are dictators still in Africa, but that was in the past. We have had elections in Mozambique and in South Africa. We have had elections in Namibia and Kenya. We have had elections in Senegal. We can go on and on and on. So there is no longer these dictators who speak with the one voice. I have talked earlier about the fact that we did have that problem in the past during the Cold War where we created Mobutu, when we went and destabilized Patrice Lumumba and took him out of office with our United States intelligence operation, and put in Mobutu, who of course supported the South African apartheid government of P.W. Botha. He supported Ian Smith in Rhodesia who had the same sort of government. He supported the Southwest Africa, which did the same thing. This was a Mobutu that we put in because of the fact that it was during the Cold War. We can go on and on in Africa. But there have been elections in most countries. We are looking for elections in the former Zaire, the Democrat Republic of Congo in the future. We have seen elections in most other countries. So it seems to me that, in order to alleviate poverty, which is of course one of the great problems in Africa, in order to look at the amount of funds that go into Africa, the population of Africa is about 700 million people, we are talking about 500 million, less than a dollar a person in Africa where we have seen other places around the world with much smaller populations getting billions of dollars. So it seems to me that, in order for us to look at Africa, 16 of the 18 of the poorest countries in the world are there. While we are reducing the amount of funds available, as I have indicated, it is going against what we should been doing in this new millennium. It is really not supporting new presidents who have been elected and are going through structural adjustments like in Mozambique where they have had a growth in their GDP of about 10 percent annually. As a matter of fact, these countries, different from what people believe, that in the SADC countries, which are 14 countries in South Africa, each of these countries has had an increase in their GDP from 4 to 12 percent. Even the country of Botswana has had a balanced budget and has put more money in at the end of the day than it has spent. So my appeal is that we increase the Development Fund for Africa to put it to the levels that it was 5, 6 and 7 years ago rather than to remove and have the money used for other parts of the world. So, Mr. Chairman, I urge that this amendment be accepted. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, as I have indicated, the Development Fund for Africa, which is the prime fund, USAID, elections, funds for democracy, building, funds for IRI, International Republican Institute, NDI, the National Democratic Institute, organizations which promote the various types of democratic building programs in the world, in Africa, are the main part of the main ingredients of why this development fund is so important. It goes to stability. We have gone in and said democracy is what we should be doing. Most of the countries have actually said we want to try democracy. There has been elections also in Tanzania and elections in Uganda and elections in Kenya. All of them improved over their previous elections. So they are striving to a more perfect election process. At this time, for us to reduce the amount of funds that are available in the DFA I think is a step backwards. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks).

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey

Mr. PAYNE of New Jersey. I do, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I commend the gentlewoman from Texas for this amendment. Peacekeeping is where it is. We have seen that by delaying the number of peacekeepers that go into a country because of the lack of funds, we find that they go in unprepared. I think in Sierra Leone we saw that happen. We cannot send people in that are not prepared. Mr. Chairman, I support the gentlewoman's amendment. Point of Order

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, let me just say that when we say this is nongermane, it makes it appear as though the question of peacekeeping has never been raised. We have been talking about peacekeeping. We even had $2.7 billion removed from the bill about peacekeeping, so we are simply saying that it seems to me that the ruling of the Chair that this is not germane when peacekeeping has actually been part of the appropriations process, it is to a large degree what we have been talking about. We have been talking about it for Ethiopia and Eritrea, for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We are talking about peacekeepers possibly in Angola. We are talking about peacekeepers now, after the diplomats have made the Lome accord that says this is the outline for peace in the region, when we had the Lusaka accord that says, this is what the diplomats have done for the Congo, now we need to bring the peacekeepers in to preserve the peace; the Lome accords for the peace in Sierra Leone. So for them to be called nongermane when this has been the center of much of the discussion here, especially in Africa for the past 3 or 4 weeks, I just would urge that the Speaker reconsider the narrow interpretation, the strict construction that he has done in the interpretation, and look at it not in the specificity but in the fundamental of the general position of peacekeeping, which has been something that has been germane.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, let me just commend the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), and the number of cosponsors of this amendment. Microeconomics is very important. First of all, it puts women in charge because many of these loans go to women. Secondly, when we looked at the accounts, interestingly enough, the payment return rate is exceedingly high, between 90 and 95 percent of these microeconomic loans. It means a lot of empowerment, not only because it brings in extra revenue, but it gives women a position in many instances of working for women's rights and independence and self-reliance. So I think that the money that we are talking about will go a long, long way. It will also show as an example by what happens to the women. Mr. Chairman, I support this amendment, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, let me rise in strong support of this amendment, and commend the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) and those who have worked with her, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Christensen). Let me also admire the work of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who has for many years been there fighting for the right causes. Mr. Chairman, about 8 years ago I started to discuss the problem of HIV-AIDS with President Museveni. At that time he was totally opposed to any kind of prevention programs, especially the use of preventative things. We talked about that. He finally decided that he would move to having prevention and education. Now in Uganda we have seen it level off. If we put in the correct amount of funds, we will be able to put a moratorium and start to win the battle. A week ago on Wednesday I was in Gaborone in Botswana. I met with President Festus Mohae. His whole discussion at our meeting a week ago was simply about the HIV-AIDS virus. He said that his life expectancy in his country was 71. Two years from now the life expectancy in Botswana will be at 39, they have lost that much. In about 5 years from now, there will be a minus population growth in the country of Botswana. We can no longer sit by and watch the world die. Let us pass this amendment.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this also is an amendment dealing with the problems on the Continent. This is asking for $500,000 to be allocated to the assistance for the national dialogue, which is the Lusaka Accords. The Lusaka Accords are the accords that will end the strife in the Congo. As my colleagues know, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under the leadership of President Kabila, there has been an armed conflict bringing in five foreign countries to the soil of the Congo: President Mugabi in Zimbabwe, President Sam Nujoma from Namibia. We have the country of Rwanda, the country of Uganda, Mr. Museveni, Mr. Mugambi from Rwanda and from Angola, Mr. De Santos, are all in a conflict in the Congo. What this request is that the former president of the country of Botswana, who has been designated by the OAU, the Organization of African Unity, to have a dialogue with the people of the Congo to come up with a mechanism for elections so that the people there could have elections and that it would facilitate the removal of foreign troops from the Congo, the troops from Rwanda and Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola. And so this $500,000 is very key because it will give the funds that they need to do the dialogue with the Lasaca Accords. Point of Order

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. I also think that it is an abomination that out of the $472 million requested that $82 million has been approved. I heard earlier the chairman of the subcommittee talk about a person that bought a plane in Uganda. He said that it was really a horrible thing that was done. Well, let me just say a few things about Uganda. First of all, the President of Uganda reduced the military budget by 75 percent, and he put the money into working with the people. The President of Uganda has had the first country in Africa where the AIDS pandemic has been leveled off and is in the possibility of being decreased. The President of Uganda has started elementary education for girls in that country. The President of Uganda had to pay back money to Asians expelled on December 4 of 1972 by Idi Amin, and those people have been able to come back to Uganda and the World Bank said that President Museveni had to restore their property and pay them back the land, which he did. President Museveni reduced the civil service by 50 percent in his country. President Museveni of Uganda, the one that the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) castigated earlier, went to Sudan on the border and fought the Lord's Resistance movement, who are people who were dealing with the terrorism in Sudan that went ahead to blow up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. President Museveni has reduced crime in his area. President Museveni is looked at as a leader in the country. And I am not defending buying a plane. But we have ECOWAS, which is a West African group of countries, we have the OAU, we have SADAK in the south, we have other kinds of North African countries, we have people that have to get around. They do not have commercial airlines like we have here. And so the worst thing that I have heard is that a president who has done magnificent things in his country bought a plane. Now, perhaps he should have bought maybe one of our used planes perhaps. But right now we have the former president of Botswana stuck in Istanbul trying to get to an OAU meeting because a meeting in Algiers was canceled. I think that we take an issue where Russia, hundreds of millions of dollars have gone down into the Mediterranean where Russian people are very wealthy at this time. We have heard the reports of Bosnia, hundreds of millions of dollars. We have seen what is happening in Kosovo. But no one talks about that. I think it is racist to pick out one simple issue and put it in an appropriations bill because someone decided that they had to get a plane to move around the continent and, therefore, debt relief should not go on. It is absolutely absurd. We take one simple issue and make that a magna issue. If people knew what was going on in some of these countries where debt relief takes 50 percent of the budget, where they have reduced the whole question of the military, where they have gone and fought AIDS, where they support the United States by fighting terrorism in Sudan, then we turn around and have people say, well, somebody bought a plane; and, therefore, our debt relief is being wasted. I think it is obscene; it does not make any sense. When we look at what is going on in the Cold War, we gave Mobutu money, we said go and deal with South Africa with P.T. Bolton and the white regime in South Africa because they were against communism. We went to UNITA in Angola and said, here is all the money you need to fight against the Communists. We do not care how much you steal. And we supported them. We took President Doe who killed the first family in Liberia and sent him all the money in the world for 10 years because he was against Communism. I was against Communism, too. But all those debts that we have is because the blood was shed in Africa for the Cold War. Nowhere else was there blood shed other than a country or two in South America. It was all on the continent of Africa where Communism was going to have its line in the sand. What we did was we should not have supported Mobutu. That is why they need money to do away with the debt in the Congo. We should not have supported the people in UNITA that we said give them all the guns they want, we do not care what they do to their people, we know they are stealing the money, but you know what, they do like a Communist. Well, I do not like Communism either, but now we are going to sit back and pontificate about how we have this money that was owed. It was a disgrace that we gave the money in the first place. It is absolutely wrong to sit back and talk about we are not putting the money in the right place. It is wrong. This money should be restored. I think it is absolutely unconscionable to think that with AIDS and all the other problems going on that we could sit around talking about we do not have a need for debt relief.

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to H.R. 4811, the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2000. This bill will significantly hamper our ability to compete in the international community. Unfortunately, this budget provides inadequate resources for discretionary investments. I am very concerned about the Africa accounts which cuts the African Development Fund, the Development Fund for Africa, the Africa Development Bank, and the Peacekeeping Initiatives. The bill underfunds the office of transition initiatives in Nigeria. It cuts economic support funds by $2.3 billion, international debt reduction by $180 million, African Development Bank by $3 million, HIV/ AIDS under Child Survival by $42 million, and Peacekeeping to Sierra Leone, Congo and Eritrea-Ethiopia by $16 million. Presently there is a meeting going on in Durban, South Africa, hosted by President Mbeki, where one out of four individuals in certain countries may die from AIDS. This bill reduces the global alliance for vaccines and immunizations by 25 percent. It is wrong. It is shameful. We should reject this bill.

Mr. PAYNE

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will continue to yield, on the question of Sierra Leone, I think there were 300 peacekeepers. Now, if there were 300 Nigerian troops at that point surrounded by several thousand RUF, I think the conclusion would probably be about the same. I think that it was not the fact that they were peacekeepers. I think that if the adequate number that was supposed to be in that country could be deployed there, I do believe that there would have been a very different outcome. Also, in Ethiopia and Eritrea, they are saying that they are ready to end all of their hostilities and they have signed a peace accord. But they have said that they want the U.N. peacekeepers in there now so they can all withdraw. They do not trust each other. If we do not send in the U.N. peacekeepers, there is no regional power in Ethiopia or Eritrea.

Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, in the Congo we have a similar situation which is at the verge of coming to a conclusion. My question is, if in two weeks all of the discussion that I will be having with the various presidents of the combatting countries agree they indeed will withdraw but the U.N. needs to be there to fill that vacuum left, where is the money then for the Congo's peacekeeping? Because the Security Council has already approved the peacekeeping plan for the Congo.