Nancy Pelosi

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I rise in support of the Fox amendment. We should not force the American taxpayer to directly pay for promoting the international ivory trade or elephant trophy hunting. I believe that the Fox-Miller amendment is a very smart approach to this very complicated challenge before the House today. The Fox amendment bars the use of American tax dollars for the purpose of supporting or promoting the international commercial trade in ivory or rhino horn. The Fox amendment does not stop Zimbabwe, or any other nation, from authorizing or conducting trophy hunting. The Fox-Miller amendment is pro CAMPFIRE maintaining existing funding levels, allowing USAID to invest in a wide-range of revenue-generating activities that have received insufficient activities in the past. When one U.S. agency, USAID, undermines the work of another U.S. agency, the Department of Interior, taxpayer dollars are wasted and U.S. policy positions are undermined. The Interior Department has maintained a firm stand against renewing the international trade in elephant ivory and hide since 1989. Again, the Fox amendment bars the use of American tax dollars for the purpose of supporting or promoting trophy hunting. It does not take the funding away from CAMPFIRE, but directs it away from lobbying efforts and into conservation efforts.

Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Torres amendment and commend him for his leadership, as well as the leadership of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Kennedy] for his leadership, on this important issue. I commend the gentleman from California [Mr. Torres] for bringing this amendment to the floor. Mr. Chairman, we have heard all different points of view about versions of the story of our interpretation of what the School of the Americas has accomplished. Whatever good it has done, it seems that it is more than just a coincidence that some of the worst violators of human rights in this hemisphere were educated at that school. Mr. Chairman, I think that the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan], our chairman, has made a very fine effort in the legislation to recognize that there is a problem that still exists at the School of the Americas, and I was very pleased to hear the gentleman say in his remarks that not one dime could be spent on the School of the Americas unless the Secretary of Defense confirmed certain things, which I would like to read into the Record, because I believe it is time for us to understand what the choice is before us today.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, once again, I, too, want to remind our colleagues of the great leadership of the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] in bringing this bipartisan legislation to the floor. This is a difficult bill and there are many contentious areas that are covered in it. We began the debate, as Members may recall, before the August district work period. At that time, I said that the gentleman from Alabama had resolved many of the contentious issues. One area of agreement that I have with the gentleman on the bill, of course, is the funding level. I hope to work on that in conference. But, again, in terms of the issue-by-issue consideration of the bill, I think a great deal was accomplished because of the gentleman's openness, accessibility, and spirit of bipartisanship. So, Mr. Chairman, I want to commend the gentleman once again for his leadership and once again separate from the remarks about, yes, we must be frugal and prudent in all of our spending, subject all of it to the harshest scrutiny, but I support the larger number of the administration, a minor disagreement with the gentleman from Alabama.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, the point is that the Jesuits are calling for the closing of the School of the Americas. The gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] is asking for a study, a good faith request for a study and certification. The gentleman from California [Mr. Torres] splits the difference, and I think it is a very wise proposal. The amendment of the gentleman from California just cuts off the funding that is in this legislation. The School of the Americas receives about $4 million from the U.S. Congress. As the Chairman knows, $1.2 million comes out of foreign operations and the rest out of the DOD appropriations bill. This is not about closing the School of the Americas. This is about cutting off this funding. It is about sending a strong message that when we ask for a report, we want it in a timely fashion and we want it to be appropriate. I look forward to visiting, at the invitation of Mr. Collins and Mr. Bishop, the School of the Americas to impress upon them that Congress does, as the gentleman from Alabama says, universally support human rights; that we do not associate ourselves with or condone any of the atrocities that have been performed by people who are graduates of the School of the Americas, but that indeed the terms that the chairman put forth in this bill are terms that we expect to be met. Mr. Chairman, this is what we did last year and they did not come through. That is what made the Torres amendment necessary. So the choice that our colleagues have is the status quo, which I believe is unacceptable and unsatisfactory in light of the response that we received, or better yet did not receive from the School of the Americas, and even a better solution than calling for the closing of the School of the Americas. This is a compromise. This is a smart approach to it. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. And I say in good faith to my colleagues, I look forward to joining them to visit the School of the Americas to help in any way that we can to promote the education of people who will promote human rights in this hemisphere. Indeed, even if the school were to be closed, there are many other institutions where military can be trained to promote human rights values and other democratic freedoms. Mr. Chairman, with that I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I support the statement of our chairman about the clarification of the language in conference but support the spirit of the amendment that is put forth by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Traficant] and once again call to the attention of our colleagues the refinement of the amendment, that the bill may be used for procurement outside the United States or in less developed countries only if such funds are used for purchases in the country receiving assistance and such purchases would cost less than procurement in the United States or less developed countries, and if such purchases are not available in the United States or less developed countries, and this is the important point that I think we will work on in conference, if the President determines that such purchases would result in a more efficient use of U.S. foreign assistance resources. The waiver language as well I think is a smart approach to the gentleman's leadership on this issue. Again, I associate myself with the comments of our chairman.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I once again commend the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan], the chairman of our committee, who was very sensitive to the concerns of many of us on the committee. The bill language is an attempt to correct this situation. I think that the Fox-Miller amendment goes the committee one better, and I support the perfecting amendment that my colleagues have put forth. Mr. Chairman, I think it is very wise and smart and addresses the problem appropriately to stop the U.S. taxpayer from funding trophy hunting, from subsidizing lobbying efforts to support trophy hunting, but still maintains the funding for CAMPFIRE. I urge my colleagues to support the Fox-Miller amendment. It is pro-CAMPFIRE and pro- environment.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone]. (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the foreign operations export, finance, and related programs legislation, and in doing so, commend our chairman, the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan], for his exceptional leadership in forging the bipartisan bill to the floor today. Although we may not agree on all of the issues in the bill, we come with a unified message. Hopefully the amendments that have been introduced on the floor will not do damage to the bipartisanship that the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] imposed upon us, that he nurtured as we went along. He indeed is the gentleman from Alabama. I am grateful to him for his accessibility in terms of hearing our case and putting some of our priorities into the legislation. I also want to join him in commending our chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Livingston], for his participation in the bipartisan spirit to bring this bill to the floor, and the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey], our ranking member of the full committee, a longtime chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs of the Committee on Appropriations for his great wisdom and spirit of bipartisanship. Before I begin, Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the hard work of the majority and minority staff, Charlie Flickner, Bill Inglee, John Shank, Nancy Tippens, Lori Maes, Mark Murray, and Carolyn Bartholomew, and thank them for their very, very hard work, not only in bringing the legislation to the floor, but for the hearing process and all that went into developing this piece of legislation today. Before I proceed on the substance of the bill, Mr. Chairman, I want to join our colleagues, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Gilman] and the gentleman from California [Mr. Lantos], in the resolution that preceded our bringing the foreign operations bill to the floor. I, too, want to extend my condolences to the people of Israel for their suffering because of the tragic terrorist act. It is appropriate that this resolution preceded our bill, because our bill has made a very, very strong commitment to peace in the Middle East. These senseless terrorist acts are not in furtherance of that peace. I wanted to add my voice of sympathy to those of our colleagues who spoke on the resolution. Mr. Chairman, this legislation addresses foreign operations, export financing, and related programs, as its title describes. As the world's sole remaining superpower and as the beacon of hope and opportunity for people around the world, it is within our ability and indeed it is vital to our national interest to provide the necessary resources to meet our collective foreign policy goals. We have and will continue to have disagreements in this body about the framework of our foreign policy goals and just what constitutes our national security interest. The fact of the matter is, however, that the overwhelming majority of funds in this bill go to an agenda on which we can all agree. These include alleviating poverty, fighting illness and eradicating disease worldwide, educating the poor, caring for refugees and displaced persons, teaching women about their choices, saving the lives of starving children, facilitating the transition to free markets and to democratic society, addressing environmental degradation, helping American companies enhance their export opportunities, providing small loans to those who need help to start businesses in the microenterprise arena that the First Lady and the administration has taken such leadership in, and promoting basic human rights and democratic freedoms. These goals, as I say, are those which we can all agree upon. They are important and they should be funded adequately. We are all familiar with President Kennedy's inaugural address when he said, and Americans of a certain age and generation all know what he said in the inaugural address, ``To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe, struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are richer.'' Many things have changed since that day in 1961, but many things have not. Our foreign policy is no longer based on containing communism, but there are many more people in the world struggling to break the bonds of mass misery today than there were in 1961. We are in fact providing those people with vital assistance. Thus, we have an even greater challenge before us today than we had in 1961, and should not be bound by artificial limits on what we are spending to meet our basic responsibility as the world's only remaining superpower to make the world healthier and more secure for all of us. We as Members of this body have a challenge before us with respect to demonstrating to the American people that their lives are indeed affected by what happens in today's world. The fact is that an overwhelming majority of people in this country support providing needed humanitarian assistance and helping poor women and children better their lot in life throughout the world. Secretary Albright, and I wish to associate myself with the remarks of our distinguished chairman, the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan], in his praise of our distinguished Secretary of State, Secretary Albright, has said that 1 percent of our budget may determine 50 percent of the history that is written about our era; and it will affect the lives of 100 percent of the American people. We have a challenge before us, and that is to convince the American people that, as I mentioned before, that their lives are affected by what happens inside our borders and that we can effectively respond to those needs. But their lives are also affected by what happens outside our borders. We on a more practical note also have to demonstrate that the funds we do provide make a difference. I for one intend to respond to this challenge by speaking out and working for higher funding level than what is currently in this bill. With all due respect to my distinguished chairman, this is one area where we have disagreement and that is on the funding level. The total funding level in this bill is simply too low to meet these challenges that I mentioned above. The total of $12.3 billion is $1 billion below the administration's request level of $13.3 billion, if we are just counting what is appropriated in this bill. We have not provided enough to even meet our annual contribution level for the International Development Association, known as IDA, much less pay the over $200 million in past due payments. These funds enable the World Bank lending to the poorest countries in the world. Underfunding of this account has led to the imposition of procurement restrictions against American companies, and this funding level means that these restrictions may continue to be in effect. The bill provides little or no funding for the new Partnership for Freedom initiative for the new independent states. Indeed, there is funding in here for the Partnership for Peace but not for the new initiative. These new republics are making strides toward democracy and the establishment of free market economies, with our help and against overwhelming internal obstacles. It is now time to refocus our aid programs, having learned what works and what does not. There should be absolutely no question that we need to remain engaged with an enlightened and robust aid program in these newly independent states and more funding is needed to accomplish this. Again, I want to compliment my distinguished chairman, the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan], because of some of the items in the bill that it does fund adequately. The bill contains funding for many vital programs such as the child survival account which is a special one for our chairman, development assistance programs, refugee assistance, export assistance, anti-terrorism, nonproliferation, demining and the Peace Corps, to name a few. Given these funding levels and the cooperation shown by the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] and the leadership shown by the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] in putting this bill together, I would like to support the bill and fully intend to. As I said, I hope that the amendments on the floor do not do violence to our spirit and the peace that the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] has created around this bill. The committee has acted responsibly in putting together a bill which reflects bipartisanship and compromise. While its funding level is too low in some areas, as I have previously stated, it has many aspects worthy of support. In closing Mr. Chairman, I want to again quote President Kennedy. As I said earlier, many Americans are familiar with President Kennedy's inaugural address in which he said, ``ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.'' But how many Americans know the line that follows, and that line is, ``my fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you but what together we can do for the freedom of men.'' President Kennedy laid down a challenge to the American people to act to improve their own country and to act to work with the peoples of other nations to work for freedom and alleviation of poverty. We must respond to this challenge by meeting our responsibilities in the spirit of humanity and generosity and in the national interest of our great country. With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran], distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Lowey], a member of the subcommittee. (Mrs. LOWEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates], the distinguished gentleman who is the ranking member of the Interior Subcommittee; more importantly for this bill, he has been a Member of this House since the inception of the Marshall plan. (Mr. YATES asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Visclosky], a member of the Committee on Appropriations. (Mr. VISCLOSKY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Woolsey].

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Bentsen]. (Mr. BENTSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Traficant].

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Reclaiming my time, I would like to say to the gentleman, I keep a very close eye on these agencies. To the extent that I believe that they are not promoting the general welfare and that special interest is served rather than the public interest, I would be certain to join with the gentleman in criticism of those aspects. But that is not what the point is here tonight. I urge my colleagues to oppose the Paul amendment.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that the gentleman will yield. However, he may not be happy when he hears what I say. The distinguished chief deputy majority whip knows the high esteem in which I hold him, so I very regretfully oppose the provision for an additional $50 million for the Blackhawk helicopters. Despite the chairman's remarks, I would not be supportive of that in conference. I very strongly opposed the rule that left the language on human rights unprotected with respect to narcotics-related assistance, and have serious concerns about that entire issue, and regretfully oppose the $50 million for the Blackhawks.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I want to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman. When I spoke earlier on the point of order on removing the language from the bill, I made the distinction between the Colombian military and the national police. Indeed, I do not oppose the support that we give to the Colombian police in the fight against narcotics.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I understand that. That is why I was saying that I agree with the gentleman on the characterization he made about the police. It was not about them, it was about the Blackhawks.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I want to join our distinguished chairman in thanking the gentlewoman from Texas for her leadership in bringing this matter to the subcommittee's attention and will join our chairman in working with her to monitor the State Department's actions on this. I again commend the gentlewoman for her leadership on this issue.