Maxine Waters

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, does the gentleman realize that one of the highest priorities of this country is to reduce and control arms in Russia? Does the gentleman realize that we have spent a considerable amount of time and we have already rescheduled debt in the interest of helping to get rid of dangerous weapons in Russia and making this world a safer place? Does the gentleman realize that is the top priority?

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I would like to congratulate the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) for her leadership, not only in this country on behalf of children, but her leadership internationally on behalf of children. This is typical of the kind of work that the gentlewoman has been doing. Mr. Chairman, it is estimated that this year some 300,000 children under the age of 18 are engaged in armed conflict in more than 30 countries. Children are forcibly conscripted through kidnapping or coercion and others join because of economic necessity to avenge a loss of a family member or for their own personal safety. This may be shocking, as this gentlewoman has said, but it is real. In this country, we have gone a long way toward protecting children. We protect children in the workplace. We protect children and make sure if they do not have a family, that they get foster care. We have rules about how they can or cannot be punished. We do everything that we can to support them from free lunch programs, to free breakfast programs. Certainly we can stand up for children who are being used in wars who are getting killed and maimed unnecessarily. Vote aye on this amendment.

Ms. WATERS

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

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. I am amazed that we have spent so much time on the Africa Trade bill talking about how we want to be involved with trade in Africa. In South Africa, we have spent years getting rid of apartheid. We have worked hard to make sure that we give democracy a chance in Africa. But what good is all of this if, in fact, we do not recognize that HIV/AIDS is devastating Africa? I just spoke with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) who just returned from Botswana; a beautiful infrastructure is that country. However, they are about to be wiped out because of the way that AIDS is ravaging that small country. The same thing is true in South Africa. What good does it do to have done all of that work to talk about getting rid of an apartheid government, to have a new opportunity here for housing and for health and for all of those things that we have fought for for so many years, when we have AIDS run amok. This country cannot, cannot in good faith talk about wanting to have a relationship with Africa and South Africa, which it has embraced and all of these other nations, and ignore the fact that AIDS is ravishing this continent. Mr. Chairman, I would ask everyone to support this amendment. This is a very mild amendment. As a matter of fact, the amount of dollars that are being asked for is insignificant, almost. So I cannot understand why anyone would be opposed to supporting this amendment. I believe there is $42 million in this amendment. We are spending more money than that on giveaways, practically, in the budget, throughout the budget of the United States. So I would ask my colleagues, please, please allow us to leave this floor this evening with some renewed faith in our ability to have just a little bit of a conscience as it relates to the continent.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) for yielding to me. As we look at what the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is doing and the tremendous work she is putting into this international AIDS crisis, tonight there is a category called Child Survival and Disease Program Fund in the budget for $202 million, and she is adding to that fund so perhaps just one or two more babies will have medicine, one or two more children may be able to survive HIV or full-blown AIDS, even. Let me just say that what we are doing is minuscule. It is not nearly enough. We need to do more. That is why we have to take up all of this time on the floor to beat everybody across the head on this issue, and not let this epidemic continue in the way that it is doing. We have to keep pushing this issue, keep pushing the envelope, because we have not even begun to do what we should be doing.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak on the point of order. Mr. Chairman, this will not take long. I think it has been said that this was an unauthorized expenditure. And I am not sure exactly what is meant by that except to say that the request that has been made by the gentleman is formally before this House without it having to be designated as authorized as such. This is extremely important that he is given the opportunity to have this considered simply because he has spoken and others have spoken about what is going on on the Continent, the need to have more democracy, the need not to have dictatorships, the need to make sure that the dollars that we are trying to get in debt relief is spent in a wise fashion. Well, this would help that process. We have countries that have so much potential, but they need to be assisted in their efforts to maintain the peace. We have Angola that has been involved for many years and we have done nothing to assist them. We have supported Zabimbi who is up in the bush rather than giving support to someone who is trying to carry out democracy in Angola. We have new leadership in the Congo with no assistance to Kabila about how to resolve the differences between the Hutus and the Tutsis. So I would ask that this be made in order and that the gentleman be allowed to offer this amendment.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would increase debt relief appropriations by $155.6 million to fully fund the administration's request for $225 million for debt relief for the world's poorest countries. Mr. Chairman, we have heard an awful lot this evening about debt relief. I would like to again thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the wonderful leadership that she has given in this debate. I suppose there are many who would be wondering why are we going to hear more about it. We are going to hear more about it because this issue is not going to die easily. It is not going to die easily because we have reneged on our commitment as leaders in this world, and at the G-8 conference we made a commitment. We made a commitment to debt relief that has not been honored. We made a commitment to debt relief for the world's poorest countries, the world's poorest countries that are being impoverished by their debts. In Tanzania, Zambia, Niger, Nicaragua, Honduras and Uganda, government spending on debt service payments is greater than government spending on health and education combined. These debt payments constitute a transfer of wealth from the world's poorest countries to the world's richest countries. Debt relief is supported by a worldwide movement known as Jubilee 2000. This movement was begun by Christians who believe that the year 2000, the two-thousandth anniversary of the coming of Christ, is a jubilee year. According to the Bible, the Lord instructed the people of ancient Israel to celebrate a jubilee, a year of the Lord, every 50 years. During a jubilee year, debts are forgiven. Supporters of Jubilee 2000 now include a diverse group of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish religious groups, developmental specialists, labor unions, environmental groups, and other nongovernmental organizations. These activists know that forgiving the debts of the world's most impoverished countries is simply the right and Christian thing to do. Supporters of Jubilee 2000 also know that debt relief is a moral imperative. Most of the debts owed by poor countries were accumulated during the Cold War, and many are the result of loans to corrupt dictators who are no longer in power. The debt of the Congo was accumulated during the oppressive rule of Mobutu. Nicaragua's debt was accumulated under the dictatorship of the Samosa family and the subsequent civil war. It is unjust and immoral to expect the impoverished people of these countries to pay back these debts. From June 18 to June 20, 1999, representatives of the United States and other creditor countries met at the G-8 summit in Cologne, Germany, and they knew the Jubilee 2000 movement was watching. These creditor governments agreed to provide faster and deeper debt relief to heavily- indebted poor countries, and required these countries to target the savings from debt relief to HIV-AIDS prevention, health care, education, child survival, and poverty reduction programs. On September 24, 1999, Gordon Brown, the chairman of the IMF's Monetary and Financial Committee, and the chancellor of the United Kingdom made the following statement about the Cologne debt initiative: ``If we are successful, it will be a matter of not years or months but weeks before the first country will benefit from debt relief.'' Tragically, the promises of Cologne have not been fulfilled. The entire Cologne debt initiative is now in jeopardy because the United States Congress has failed to fund its contribution to the program. Last year, the administration proposed a multiyear package totalling $920 million in appropriations for debt relief. For fiscal year 2001, the administration requested only $225 million. This relatively small investment could leverage millions more from other creditor governments and international financial institutions. However, without American leadership, debt relief will never become a reality. Pope John II said, and I quote, ``We have to ask . . . why progress in resolving the debt problem is still so slow. Why so many hesitations? Why the difficulty in providing the funds needed even for the already-agreed initiatives? It is the poor who pay the cost of indecision and delay.'' Let us declare an end to the indecision and delay.

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

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, let me just say that, certainly, if the amendment of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for an emergency appropriation had been honored, and maybe that is the appropriate way or the better way to do it, I would not have come with this amendment that would have to find offsets in other places. But given that it was not, I have come with this amendment. However, we have had a conversation where the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Callahan) has indicated a sincere desire to work with us and to find money in light of the fact there will be some continuing negotiations about money as the whole peace agreement is being discussed. But what I would like to say is this, I would not like to have my amendment cast as an amendment that is for or against Israel. I do not think that gets us anywhere in doing that. And I want to say something to my colleague about the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus). The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) and I serve on the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, and we disagree on a lot of things and over the years we have disagreed. I believe that debt relief was our finest moment. I think it was a superb moment for the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) and the leadership that he provided in the most honest and sincere way. And I want to tell my colleague that it softened my real concerns about what and who I thought the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus) was. This has been a learning experience for all of us, and so he is not opposed to Israel and I do not want it cast that way.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the terrific work that she has done as the ranking member. She has taken on a tremendous responsibility and helped to organize us all. The foreign operations appropriations bill is scandalously underfunded. The entire region of sub-Saharan Africa has been ignored and abandoned by the Republican leadership in this bill. The African Development Bank's funding was cut by almost 25 percent below its current funding level and 50 percent below the administration's request. The African Development Fund was cut 28 percent below its current level and $56 million below the administration's request. As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy of the House Banking Committee, I know how important these programs are. Development assistance programs that benefit Africa have also been underfunded. International disaster system was cut from $203 million to $165 million, barely a few months after floods ravaged Southern Africa. I am especially outraged by the lack of funding for debt relief. The bill contains only $82.4 million for debt relief with only $69.4 million of which can be used to forgive the debt of the world's poorest countries. While HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to ravish sub-Saharan Africa; while the impoverished nation of Mozambique attempts to rebuild itself after it was nearly destroyed by devastating floods; while Nigeria scuttles to overcome the impact of years of dictatorship; while Tanzania, Zambia, Niger, Nicaragua, Honduras and Uganda continue to spend more of their budgets on debt service payments than they do on health and education combined, the Republican leadership is turning a deaf ear. Shame on the failed Republican leadership. It is hard for me to imagine how Members of Congress who claimed to be faithful, God-fearing leaders of families and communities can reject the most impoverished and vulnerable people in the world. I urge my colleagues to oppose this shameful bill, send it down the drain. Do not vote for it. It is outrageous.

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

Ms. WATERS. Sir, you made cuts in all of Africa's budget. Where did you then increase Africa's budget where the cuts have been made in both the development fund and the other fund for Africa? You cut them, but there is no place where you increased the funds to Africa. Where did you do likewise for Africa?

Ms. WATERS. Sir, the President asked for $400 million.

Ms. WATERS. You told me what the President asked for in military financial assistance.

Ms. WATERS. No, I will not stop saying it yet, but I do appreciate your yielding. I would like to ask a question if I may. Is there $90 million in fiscal year 2001 for the foreign military financing program with $60 million of that an increase going to Israel and $60 million over the next 10 years in an increase while you are being prudent in your budgeting?

Ms. WATERS. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I am again grateful to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) for the leadership that she is providing on the whole issue of Africa but particularly on this whole business of debt relief. I am sorry that the chairman of the committee is leaving the room. I wish that he would stay, given some of the comments that he has made. First of all, let me take up the issue that the chairman seems to be alluding to: these irresponsible people in Africa, they do not know how to handle their money; we give them money and they go out and they buy jets. Well, I think we should reject that kind of condescending description of the problems of Africa. We do not hear him talking about Poland. We do not hear him raising questions about who else flies jets. We do not hear anything about Africa. We know what that is all about. We are accustomed to that kind of condescending accusations coming to people of color. I do not like it. I wish it would stop. And I do not appreciate the fact that this is all that can be talked about when we talk about what we do or what we do not do for Africa. The fact of the matter is this country met in the big G-8 summit and gave leadership to the idea that we should do something about forgiving debt. All of the churches, organized religions of the world, came together to talk about Jubilee 2000 and put together a magnificent program that included the churches and organized religion and included all the nongovernmental organizations and they moved forward. And this country made a commitment and we led. And we have worked very hard for debt relief; we have worked very hard for debt forgiveness. And we should forgive the debts of the most vulnerable and the poorest countries of the world. First of all, they cannot afford to pay it back. Some of them are starving their children, not being able to pay for education and health needs trying to pay back this debt. And the interest keeps piling up and piling up on this debt. They will never get it paid, even those countries that have gone under structural adjustment and have done well. We have allowed them to take from their economy dollars that they should be using for health and education and comply with structural adjustment, and we still have not gone back to help them in any appreciable way. But we find that the chairman does not talk about the increases that they did, foreign military financing program, $60 million per year for the next 10 years. If they are so concerned about how they spend the money and doing it in a responsible way and making sure that they set priorities, how do they have money to increase the foreign military financing program by $60 million a year and try to do it for 10 years? I think this is outrageous. I think we need to deal with it like it is. This is Africa. Somehow it is less deserving. Somehow the people of Africa and poor people of the world in Central and South America and in other places are not worthy of debt relief or support. They are worthy only of condescending remarks that they cannot handle their money, that they only use their money to buy things they do not need. We did not talk like that when we talked about what we were going to do when the Soviet Union broke up. We do not talk about Russia that way. We do not talk about Poland that way. And we darn sure do not talk about Israel that way. There is nothing worse than a bully. There is nothing worse than somebody who picks on the least of these and the most vulnerable of these.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I certainly appreciate all of the work the gentlewoman has put in, to not only waive the statute of limitations, that took tremendous work to get done, but the support that the gentlewoman has given with the class action lawsuit, the support that the gentlewoman has given to the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and others who have been involved in all of this. Additionally, along with the two ideas of trying to get interest when there has been a delay and trying to get more money to have more contractors, the last amendment that I had would be a transfer of funds from the position of Special Assistant to the Secretary for Civil Rights to a newly created position of Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights. Now, this is very simple. What we have actually in the Department of Agriculture is a violation of the EEOC law, because what you have is you have a position, and in that position they not only are trying to supposedly do the work of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Agriculture, they handle personnel for Agriculture and some other kinds of things that put them in direct conflict. This idea would simply have a position of Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights that we would request so that we will have a way by which the complaints and the bottlenecks can be addressed at the highest levels so that we can get this behind us once and for all. I do not know of anybody who is opposed to getting this done. As a matter of fact, these farmers are part of the great agricultural community of this Nation, who work hard, day in and day out, to supply the food stuffs that we need as citizens. These are the farmers that continue and persist in an attempt to do farming, no matter how difficult it is. We have seen many of these farmers who have lost farms and come back and start all over again. Many of them have witnessed their ancestors, who have died trying to farm the land without money, without money to even buy the seed that they need to get planted. Many of them are sitting there now, not knowing if they are going to be foreclosed on. Many of them were born farmers, and they want to die farmers. They love what they do. They love the time and effort that many of their family members have put into farming, and I think we deserve to give them some support. I think they deserve to have these claims adjudicated. They deserve to have them processed in a timely manner. As it has been said, they have been found to be eligible, their claims have been received, they have been investigated, and they are owed the money. Why are they being held up? Well, one question has been raised, there are some folks who are maybe incompetent. Others are playing games. But I think it defies the direction of this House. I would simply ask that we receive the kind of support that is necessary to process these claims and get it done.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, the second amendment is a $500,000 request from the Commodity Credit Corporation to procure additional contractors for the Judge Adjudication Mediation Service for the resolution of outstanding claims under the Pigford v. Glickman consent decree. I might add that there should be a correction in the way ``Pigford'' has been spelled in the amendment that we submitted. Let me just say that this amendment is consistent with what we are trying to do to facilitate these claims. Again, you have these farmers who filed these claims in good faith, and we have supported them in good faith from both sides of the aisle with the class action lawsuit. The judge put together this process by which to get it done. We have the appropriate amount of dollars by which to get it done. We have the process that has been signed off on. We have so-called monitors. We have the facilitators and the adjudicators, but it is not getting done. This would satisfy some the complaints that I am hearing, that there are not enough people involved in this contractor relationship that we have to get the job done. So this $500,000 from the Commodity Credit Corporation would simply procure additional contractors, speed it up, get it done. The money is there in the system by which to do it. This would just supply $500,000 to get additional contractors to make sure it gets done. If we take this action, and we take the action for assessing 20 percent monthly interest rates for those farmers who have not had their claims done, I think we will be able to move this process. Many of the farmers who are out there do not know what is going on. They do not understand the complications of the system. They do not understand all that has been done in the consent decree. Mr. Chairman, I would ask for support so that we could move this process.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, the first amendment is a $1 million set- aside from the Commodity Credit Corporation that would pay 20 percent monthly interest rates to those farmers whose claims are in arrears for more than 60 days. Let me say what has prompted this. Many Members, from both sides of the aisle, have worked very, very hard to correct some of the injustices perpetrated by the Department of Agriculture years past. A lot of good work went into waiving the statute of limitations so that claims could be refiled and that we could have an administrative process by which to take care of those farmers who had been denied years past. In addition to that, many Members from both sides of the aisle supported the class action lawsuit. The class action lawsuit was successful, and there was a consent decree, and there was a whole process put in place, with a monitor, with facilitators and with adjudicators to process these claims. Well, many of the farmers who have filed claims in good faith are now waiting for months to try and get those claims adjudicated, and it is quite unfortunate that those people who have the responsibility for processing these claims either have not been able to get their act together so that they could process them in a timely manner, or they are just negligent in what they are supposed to be doing. One of the things I discovered some time ago is when you are dealing with small business people, such as these small farmers, you can literally drive them out of business by not processing their claims where they have expectations to be reimbursed for the past discrimination that they have experienced, whether it is in the agricultural community or just in the small business community. If you then assess those who have the responsibility and force them to have to pay interest rates to facilitate these claims, we find we get things done a lot faster. If in fact we have farmers out there who are filing claims and if those claims cannot be processed in 60 days, this amendment would simply say you have to pay them interest rates and get it done. This will move up the process. This will take care of the small family farmers, the small business persons, who are sitting there waiting month in and month out to have these claims adjudicated. I would ask for support on this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I have several amendments at the desk. I would like to proceed at this time.

Ms. WATERS

Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support my colleague from New York (Mr. Rangel) on this amendment and certainly believe it to be germane. I think it has been correctly stated that there has been a lot of backroom dealing going on on this issue. Day in and day out, we have heard about all of the antics, all of the various manipulations and maneuvering that has gone on only to have surfaced some very, very limited trade. One way that would perhaps allow our farmers to sell to Cuba, but would, on the other hand, do a lot of damage to the work that this President has been doing to help open up discussion and debate and to export democracy to Cuba. It seems to me that this amendment would take care of some of the problems that have been created by my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, and I would simply ask that the Chair would recognize that and rule in favor of my colleague and the work that he is attempting to do.