Nancy Pelosi

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. In closing, I want to commend our distinguished chairman for his tremendous leadership in crafting this legislation and bringing such a strong bipartisan bill to the floor. I think the strength of our bill today and the consensus that he built will go a long way to taking us to passage and to conference, where some of the fights will be tougher ones and where we will have the battle over priorities and how much money is the appropriate figure to have in this legislation. I want to once again thank the majority and the minority staff and, very important, the distinguished members of the subcommittee, both Republican and Democratic members of the committee for the cooperation they gave to our chairman and to me as ranking member. I believe that this bill is a very important one to the Congress and to our country. Because of the resources that we are appropriating here today, the Clinton administration will be able to promote democratic freedoms, stop proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, promote U.S. exports through the export finance provisions of this legislation, and indeed work for our national security by promoting peace throughout the world. I come from a different kind of district than the district of the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan]. I am sympathetic to him in terms of having to sell foreign assistance back home. I come from a very globally oriented district that places a very high value on the leadership role that the United States plays in the world, and I think that the commitment that we make here today and hopefully an expanded one that we will come out of the conference with is one that does promote the values of our country. I urge my colleagues to support the legislation the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] has brought to the floor today.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer], a distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to my colleague, the gentleman from California [Mr. Torres], a distinguished member of the subcommittee. (Mr. TORRES asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Gejdenson], a senior member of the Committee on International Relations.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the point of order and would like to make two points in regard to it. First, it is unfortunate that this rule came to the floor this way not protecting this language as was requested by our committee. Let our membership debate this issue and vote one way or another. But to leave this issue exposed this way is, I think, a disservice to the Members of this House because the actual point of order that the gentleman makes, I believe, is based on a mistake, the mistaken impression that has been circulating here that we have been withholding funds from the Colombian national police. That is not true. We have been withholding funds from the military but the United States has been assisting the Colombian national police in the battle against narcotics. Therefore, we would welcome the debate on the language that is in the bill which withholds funds from the units of the military which have committed gross human rights violations. I wish that the rule would have allowed our colleagues to hear the debate. Vote it up or down. I urge the Chair to reject the point of order.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 10 seconds to the gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Bereuter].

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

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee]. (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes 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 am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Blumenauer].

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak briefly in opposition to the point of order.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California, Mr. Brad Sherman. (Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton].

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant). (Mr. TRAFICANT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, we have had considerable interest on our side on this issue. Members were not aware that there was going to be a time limitation on this. I ask unanimous consent for 10 additional minutes on this side in opposition to the OPIC amendment.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Rangel], the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means, who is working on the tax bill. (Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Because the hour is late, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his leadership on this important issue. I once again reiterate my support for the gentleman's amendment. I thank the gentlewoman from California for her leadership as well.

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

Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] said at the end of his remarks that he understands that the committee will accept the amendment, and that is my understanding as well. But I would like to just take a moment to put a couple of observations on the Record without commenting on the Committee's rule. My colleagues, I understand your preference to shut down the IAEA's activity in Cuba. As we know, that is not necessarily achieveable by simply cutting off U.S. participation. The IAEA functions as an international body with contributions from many sources, and consequently its program decisions are not made by the United States alone. I do not necessarily disagree with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] on the issue of renewing the construction of the power plant in Cuba. I oppose that in fact, and the U.S. opposes that. In fact, the United States has regularly pleaded with our allies not to help Cuba revive this project. So far, that effort has succeeded. Unilateral efforts such as this pose a problem for us in achieving our credibility in achieving our goal in these multilateral, multinational bodies. I am concerned, therefore, how this action would affect our credibility with the IAEA on other matters. For years the United States, at the urging of Congress, fought with other nations who were attempting to exclude Israel from IAEA. Our point was that an international organization was unfair to single out one country for discriminatory treatment. This amendment puts us in a position of doing that. We are presently depending on the work of the IAEA to be the eyes and ears of the world when it comes to monitoring the activities of North Korea, Iraq, and other countries that we might not consider to be within the realm of countries that are operating in a way with respect for their citizens. We are counting on the IAEA to be the eyes and ears, as I said, with respect to nuclear programs. The U.S. has a vital stake in this ongoing work, and we should not jeopardize that. That is why I want to put on the Record my concern for passing unilateral prohibitions such as this one. It puts us in an uncomfortable position when comes to influencing IAEA or countries like North Korea, where vital U.S. interests are also at stake. So, as I say, I am not disagreeing with the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] on the substance of his amendment, but I do in terms of my responsibilities to the subcommittee and our other activities want to put some of these concerns on the Record.

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

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Rahall].

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Nadler]. (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)