Nancy Pelosi

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the remarks of the distinguished gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach), chairman of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services. I commend him for his service on this issue and many others of concern to people of our country and throughout the world. I commend the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich), chairman of the Committee on the Budget, for his favorably disposed presentation toward the thrust of my amendment. I want to just state that this must be a bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives, and that is what we will all be working toward. Hopefully, at the end of the day, our position will prevail in a bipartisan way that we will fully fund the President's request for fiscal year 2000 and 2001 to meet our obligations to the G-7 and to the poorest people in the world. Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), who is a member of the Committee on Appropriations, and has long been active in these issues of justice throughout the world.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the very distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, how much time is remaining on each side?

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

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes 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 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), a member of the Committee on International Relations. (Mr. HASTINGS of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield 7 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services.

Ms. PELOSI. I appreciate the gentleman saying that, but that was my point exactly. If there is going to be a motion to rise, I would reserve my time and use it for other colleagues.

Ms. PELOSI. I see. The gentleman is clear. Mr. Chairman, in that case I may have another speaker available.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), the distinguished Democratic Whip of the House.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown).

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the many Members on both sides of the aisle who are participating in this evening's debate. I am especially pleased that the last four or five speakers on the Republican side give us hope that we will be able to reach a bipartisan resolution to the question that is before us this evening. I was, of course, inspired by the statement of the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), encouraged by the statement of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), always taught by the statement of the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach), the chairman of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, and so pleased to have expressions of support from the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kasich), the chair of the Committee on the Budget. So I am hopeful that when we go down this path the funding will be sufficient and the policy will match the need that we have for debt relief. Mr. Chairman, our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy of the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, in his beautiful remarks of support of international debt relief commented that something like $1.20 for every American would cover what we are trying to do here tonight and spoke very poignantly about that being the cost of an ice cream or Sunday paper. I could not help but think of some other statistics. The World Bank estimates that sub-Saharan African countries owe foreign creditors an average of almost $400 for every man, woman and child, more than most Africans make in a year. More than $400 for every person is owed. This can be resolved by $1.20 for every American, a small price to pay to unleash an enormous amount of money relatively speaking to the economies of those countries that would solve the problem of $400. One dollar solves the problem of $400 for every person in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of my colleagues have referenced the statistics. The writer George Bernard Shaw once wrote that the true sign of an intelligent person was that he or she was swayed and persuaded by statistics. I do not know if that is true, but the statistics here are staggering and I think very compelling and bear repeating if they have already been stated. In Mozambique, one of every four children dies before the age of five due to infectious disease. Yet the government spends four times more on debt servicing than on health care. In Tanzania, where 40 percent of the population dies before the age of 35, the government spends nine times more on foreign debt payments than on health care, according to Oxfam. We have heard these statistics, and they go on and on. But I am really quite taken by the spirit of how this debate evolved this evening. And in that spirit, I wanted to quote from Bernard Cardinal Law, the Archbishop of Boston, and chairman of the International Policy Committee of the United States Catholic Conference. He says, ``I am particularly disturbed by the woefully inadequate allocation for poor country debt relief. Last year's legislation supporting the new, more generous debt relief program agreed that the Cologne summit gave promise of a Jubilee Year 2000 that would bring hope to millions of impoverished children, women, and men around the world.'' I hope that we will take the hope that Cardinal Bernard Law references here and make it tangible in terms of the appropriation that we need at the end of the day. I just want to say, though, in the larger context of assistance to other countries, what we do for other countries is largely what is in our national interest to do. It is a part of a vision of who we think we are as a country, and we think we are great, and we are great. And as other Members have indicated tonight, it would be a sign of our greatness for us to recognize the responsibilities that we have internationally. It is about the knowledge that we have and, as I have said before, the diversity that we have in this body empowers us but gives us also the responsibility to do something about the issues that are before us. Our members of the Congressional Black Caucus, of the Hispanic Caucus, of the Asian-Pacific American Caucus know the cultures, the economies, the opportunities and the needs and the urgency in the countries of their knowledge. We should build a plan on that knowledge, and we have. The President has agreed to it, he has to return next week to the G7 meeting to answer for it. Unfortunately, we will not have the opportunity to give him the funding he needs to go there. But hopefully he can take a message that all signs are hopeful that Congress will meet the President's request of $472 million for international debt relief to meet the fiscal year 2000 obligation and the fiscal year 2001, both of which I hope will be contained in this bill. It is not about doing anybody a favor. It is about the recognition that this is in our national interest. It is about the idea that infectious disease knows no boundary. I would hope that a spirit of compassion would be enough to compel us to do this, but it has a pragmatic aspect of it, and, that is, as I said, infectious disease knows no boundary. And we know that as we see AIDS raging through Africa, Asia and spreading to the rest of the world, even the increase in the United States when we are so enlightened about the subject. And it is again about the spirit of who we are as a country. I think the American people expect and the American people deserve that we do our best to represent us not only as a great country but as a good country. As I have been talking, Mr. Chairman, I was hoping that some of our colleagues who had requested time would return to the floor. May I ask of the Chair, are we going to have a motion to rise, Mr. Chairman?

Ms. PELOSI. I had been told that there might be an intervention into our debate.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Since the gentlewoman ended on the word AIDS, I just wanted to pick up on that for a moment and say that if you compound AIDS with poverty, you have a very, very deadly formula. These subjects are very definitely related. In the course of the evening we will have an amendment on AIDS, but we will not have as much time to debate that issue. But this issue of the debt forgiveness is not unrelated to the spread of AIDS in these countries which have inadequate access to quality health care and to education and, therefore, prevention. I also wanted to make the point that it is in our national interest because disease knows no boundary, nor does environmental degradation. So I am very pleased that the American Lands Alliance, the Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the International Rivers Network, Environmental Defense, Rain Forests International, and World Wildlife Fund have all written in support of our amendment, indicating that when poor countries place their environment in jeopardy, they will frequently have to liquidate their natural resources as a quick way to service their debt. We do not want that to happen. That is why it is very important for us for personal, environmental, health, economic, cultural, political, for every reason to do the right thing by supporting the President's request on debt forgiveness. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the vice chair of the Democratic Caucus. (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), a member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Ms. PELOSI. Then I will have to yield the gentleman from Virginia 1\1/2\ minutes to close for our side.

Ms. PELOSI. Does the gentleman insist on his point of order?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman for his course of action. Point of Order

Ms. PELOSI. Only to make two points, Mr. Chairman: A, this is an emergency; and, B, there is precedent in the legislation with the funding for flooding in Mozambique and southern Africa. So it would be consistent with what is in the bill already for the majority to withdraw the point of order and give the body a chance to work its will on the legislation.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee and the distinguished chairman of the full committee for their courtesy as we go forward with this very important amendment. Mr. Chairman, my amendment adds $210 million requested by the administration for debt relief for fiscal year 2000 supplemental request and $179.6 million for fiscal year 2001. The amendment, therefore, fully funds the pending request for debt relief before both fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2001. This is approximately a $390 million amendment. Approval of this amendment has now become even more compelling in light of the fact that the bill only contains $82 million of the $472 million requested for debt relief. We have been working on the debt question in a very positive way with the chairman in his original mark where $221 million had been provided and where contributions to the HIPC Trust Fund had been authorized. We now find ourselves with only $82 million, which is not enough to remove debt relief for Bolivia, which has been imminent and awaiting a sufficient United States contribution. In addition, Honduras, which was devastated by a severe hurricane not long ago, will be unable to consummate their debt relief without additional funds. We have talked already about Mozambique and its readiness for debt relief. I regret that we have to use the emergency designation for this amendment, but I would point out that the bill already contains $160 million in emergency designation for the floods in southern Africa as an emergency supplemental funding. In addition, the supplemental just passed contains over $11 billion in emergency spending for everything from soup to nuts. It comes down to a matter of priorities. I know that we will be hearing from our colleagues about the urgency, the specifics of the need for this debt relief. This is part of an outside mobilization that is ecumenical in nature, it is worldwide in scope, and it is very, very essential for us to heed. As I said earlier, we are blessed in this caucus with a very diverse membership. This House of Representatives must hear what our membership is saying. We are blessed with the intellectual resources, the personal experiences, the direct knowledge of the cultures, the economies and the possibilities of countries south of the equator. The world does not stop at the equator, and sometimes I think this body acts as if it does. We must address these important economic needs in Africa and in Latin America and we can do so by the very important way of supporting these funds for debt relief. I will have more to say on this subject, Mr. Chairman, but I know that many members of the caucus wish to speak to this issue. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I have spoken at length on support for international debt relief earlier and was not going to seek time now, but I do want to set the record straight. My distinguished chairman represents that support for the legislation of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), and implied in that that the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) in his support of that amendment, is taking money from Israel or the Middle East peace, and that is not so. The offset in the Waters bill is $200 million. The non-Middle East foreign military financing money in the bill is $230 million. So it is possible to take this $200 million from FMF without touching the Middle East peace money, and it is really, I am sad to say, disingenuous to say that if we support this bill the money is coming out of the Middle East. It is coming out of the FMF account which has $230 million beyond the Middle East peace money and $200 of that is what the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is drawing upon.

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

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time and for her extraordinary leadership on this global AIDS issue. Mr. Chairman, as my colleagues know, this past week the world's leading experts on HIV/AIDS gathered in Durbin, South Africa for the 13th International HIV/AIDS Conference. The participants shared their knowledge and attempted to find solutions to the challenges of prevention, affordable treatment, and eventually a cure for HIV/AIDS. We must do our part in this country to respond to what has truly become a global crisis. Mr. Chairman, when those experts met in Durbin, South Africa, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) was there, and she is here tonight, less than 36 hours since her arrival in this country; she is here tonight leading the way. The world is finally waking up to the scope and seriousness of the HIV/AIDS problem, as more resources are devoted to expanding the infrastructure to fight the disease. It would be a serious blow if the United States did not live up to its commitments at this time. Again, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is here to lead the way in that regard. Mr. Chairman, in addition to commending my colleague, I want to introduce into the Record a USAID report project which projects a dramatic increase in AIDS orphans. Over the next 10 years, there will be more than 30 million orphans because their parents will die of AIDS. This represents a dramatic increase. How many more parents have to die? How many more children have to become orphaned? Many of those children, HIV-infected themselves. How many more children will have to die before we wake up to an appropriate, appropriate response to AIDS? This increase that the gentlewoman is proposing brings what is in the bill up to the President's request of $244 million. Frankly, it is the least we can do. It is certainly not enough, but it is a good start for us. USAID will use these additional funds for education, prevention and interventions to reduce mother-to-child transmissions. Funding will be used to aid countries to establish their own HIV interventions. I commend the gentlewoman for her leadership and I urge my colleagues to support her amendment. USAID Report Projects Dramatic Increase in AIDS Orphans Durban, South Africa.--The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today released the executive summary of Children on the Brink 2000, a study of AIDS orphans across the globe. The study finds that by 2010, at least 44 million children will have lost one or both parents to all causes in the 34 countries most severely affected by the AIDS pandemic. Of these 44 million orphans, 68 percent of their parents will die of AIDS. This represents a dramatic increase from 1990, when AIDS accounted for 16.4 percent of parental deaths. Orphans are distributed among world areas in the same patterns as HIV-prevalence, so that countries with the highest infection levels usually have the highest orphan rates. The orphan crisis is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa. In at least eight countries in this region, between 20 and 35 percent of children under 15 have lost one or both parents. By 2010, 11 countries will reach this rate. Children on the Brink 2000 finds that with few exceptions the number of children being orphaned will accelerate through at least 2010. In many countries, the proportion of orphaned children will remain exceptionally high until 2020 or 2030. One country studied was Zambia. Children on the Brink 2000 finds that in Zambia, currently 27.4 percent, or 1.2 million children, who are under age 15, are orphans. Chronic malnutrition is widespread. Orphan caregivers are predominantly poor women. Children in these households are significantly more disadvantaged than children in two-parent families, largely because women have less access to property and employment. Female-headed households are larger and poorer than male-headed households in all regions. The executive summary of Children on the Brink 2000 was released at a USAID press conference at the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. Since 1986, USAID has dedicated over $1.4 billion dollars for the prevention and mitigation of this epidemic in the developing world. USAID's HIV/AIDS budget of $200 million for 2000 is four times as great as the next-largest donor's budget. USAID is working in 46 of the hardest hit countries around the world. Nearly 70 percent of USAID's HIV/AIDS program assistance goes to small non- governmental organizations that have direct connections to the poorest of the poor and those most vulnerable to infection. Children on the Brink 2000 updates USAID's 1997 report on orphans, and provides estimates of the number of orphans in 34 developing nations, as well as offering strategies to support children affected by HIV/AIDS worldwide. The original report included the first international orphan estimates published since 1990 and contributed to a growing sense of urgency about the impact of HIV/AIDS, particularly in sub- Saharan Africa. The complete Children on the Brink 2000 will be released this fall. Children on the Brink 2000 presents new orphan estimates for the 23 countries studied in the 1997 report, as well as 11 additional developing countries. The report also provides a summary of new statistics on the HIV/AIDS pandemic; new programming recommendations for children, families, communities, and governments; and an updated overview of actions taken by international organizations to assist families and children affected by HIV/AIDS. The executive summary of Children on the Brink 2000 is available at www.usaid.gov. The U.S. Agency for International Development is the U.S. government agency that provides development and humanitarian assistance worldwide.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, reserving the right to object, and I do not intend to object, but I do want to commend the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) for his tireless leadership on this issue. The challenge of tuberculosis is a great one throughout the world, not unrelated to AIDS. Many people with HIV die of tuberculosis. But I do want to commend the chairman because he has responded at least two times that I am aware of to the appeal for increases last year and in the committee accepted my amendment for the increase to the point that we are now. The gentleman is a man of his word. If he says that he is going to help in conference, then the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) has already graciously agreed to withdraw. So I look forward to working with the gentleman from Alabama on that. I commend the gentleman for his leadership and acknowledge the strong bipartisan support and commend all of the cosponsors on this legislation. It is very important to all of us. Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding me the time and for his commitment to do more in conference on this microenterprise issue. I want to commend the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) for his leadership and for his constant attention to this very important issue. As my colleagues know, Mr. Chairman, we have traveled many places in the developing world. The gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), a member of the committee, and I have visited many microlending sites, microenterprise activities. It is hard for us in the United States to understand how a little bit of money can go such a very long way and make such a very, very big difference. I could go into it chapter and verse over the map, but I would be abusing the good nature of my distinguished chairman so I will not do that, except to say that this is a program that has a tremendous base of support in our country at the grassroots level. It is effective. It works. And I commend the gentleman for pushing it even further because I know that it will reap tremendous benefits.