I, too, was going to say a few things about Charlie Wilson. I know this will probably be his last foreign operations appropriations budget, but I enjoyed him and certainly his friendship. I agree with your statement, actually it is my statement as you were reading it I thought, I understand what he is saying here. I am really tracking with you. What you said there in the first part, that in many ways I think this is one of the most important budgets, one of the most important things that we do in Congress. We don't have a constituency really in our districts to really push this budget, and in many ways it means the difference between life and death, it means the difference between civil war and not having civil war. I am very excited about being here before you. I know that I did a poll in my district many years ago when I first ran and asked people to rank 15 important issues that I thought were most important, and foreign affairs, foreign appropriations, ranked last. It shows you that in many people's mind, at least in those days, it was not important. I suspect with the Members of Congress it would probably be the same way today. But as I look at what we do with the money and some of the places I have seen the money going towards, this can be one of the most important things that we do. There are a lot of things that we do in Congress that are trivial, and in many cases what you do here makes the difference between life and death. I have seen a lot of these programs overseas. I have experienced many of the programs myself when I was in the Peace Corps, and I was in Bosnia last year when, talking to one of the refugees, she had every reason to be probably mad at us and other western nations because of what happened to her. She was burned out of her house by the Serbs. Yet she felt gratified to America because we were providing her clean water, food, and shelter. It has been that way in many countries. As we go through the many developing nations, many of the nations in civil war, many of the people are excited about what we have been able to do and help them over the years. In many ways, what we do here, we are the leader of the world, so whatever we appropriate and I would hope it would be a heck of a lot more than what we have been appropriating over the past couple of years. I am one of the few that believes that. When we reduce our budget, everybody else reduces their budget too, because they point to us. I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, for your efforts on children. This is a most important asset. To put our money in that particular area as much as we can is very, very important, especially in the area of child survival, war-torn or poverty-stricken countries, and immunization, basic education. I have seen basic education work. I was surprised to see it working in Croatia, and there is a big initiative at this time, and has been going on since Christmas, for immunization and basic education in Bosnia. I participated in basic education myself when I was a teacher in the Peace Corps, teaching in high school in Thailand. So I have seen it work. I do want to commend you, though, for your important mission and your direction emphasizing children in your last budget. I wish we could give more money in the foreign aid budget. We used to be able to talk about a foreign aid budget of $19 billion; now we are talking about $12 billion. I would hope that we can really establish what the priority is and do the best job we can with the programs and the money that we have. I would urge you to fully fund UNICEF. UNICEF is being cut, according to the administration's request, by $10 million. I have questioned people as to telling the administration as to why they think this is important. I have not received a good reason. They are trying to get more money into other U.N. organizations, but UNICEF, to me, is like child survival, like the Peace Corps: These are good programs that work and help people. If we have something that is very, very good, we should fund it and go with the programs we understand and like and know have proven themselves year after year. So I would hope we could restore the $10 million to UNICEF that is being cut out by the administration. I want to express my support for the full funding of disaster assistance programs. I am particularly impressed by Nan Borton, who runs the programs. She does a great job. It is very important to talk development assistance, and it is one of the most important things that we do. But the fact is, we are in a disaster world. We have 23 to 24 disasters going on right now. We are barely keeping our head above water. So what we do to fully fund disaster assistance is very important. Displaced kids and land mines. In every country I always see a bunch of kids. We call them displaced kids, but they have been displaced because of civil war and have lost their parents in some way. In Angola, I will never forget going out at night, seeing kids huddled in allies like puppies. They are 10, 12, 15 years old. I will just finish by saying that there was a poll done right before Christmas last year, I believe, that asked people how they ranked various issues. They ranked hunger and poverty the same as balancing the budget and health care. It was ranked up there very, very high. It was a Nielsen poll done right before Christmas. I was amazed. People want us to fund these programs. Mr. CALLAHAN. I think you are right in that respect. They want us to help the starving, help the poverty, help the children of the world, help with healthcare, but they don't want to give foreign aid. There must be some way to divorce the two. With your permission, I will submit our statement to the record. Mr. HALL. You were reading it very well. Mr. CALLAHAN. All these typographical errors, not talking about your errors-Chairman Callahan-there is a typographical error. I am Chairman Callahan. We know of your interest. You are not going to have to worry with UNICEF. That will be fully funded. The Children's Fund is going to be reinstated in my mark. So I don't think we are going to see much difference than what we saw last year when the bill left the House, including those issues that are of concern to you, especially children. Mr. HALL. Thank you, sir. [The information follows:] Tony R. Hall Statement Before the Committee on Appropriations Chairman Callahan, I want to thank you and the other outstanding members of this subcommittee for inviting me to testify here today. I want to express my special thanks to Mr. Wilson who will be ending his distinguished career in Congress this year. [To Wilson] Your dedication, leadership, and service to the American people are greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed. Now, the way I see it, because this is the last Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that Mr. Wilson will consider, you all had better make it a good one. The Foreign Operations bill is not the largest Appropriations bill. It is not the most controversial. It does not receive the most widespread attention. But, in many ways, it is the most important. The decisions that you make on this funding bill mean the difference between freedom and oppression, the difference between war and peace, and the difference between life and death for millions of people throughout the world. 2 Thanks to the decisions of this subcommittee, the people of the former Yugoslavia have taken some first steps toward rebuilding their war-torn society. When I travelled to Bosnia last year, I saw some of the thousands of refugees who would never have survived if not for the health, food, and housing programs funded through this bill. I asked an elderly Muslim woman who had been forced from her home if she was angry at the United States for not doing more to stop the Serbs. She answered that she was not angry at America because America was providing the food and shelter that were keeping her alive. But, there is still a long way to go and if this year's bill adequately funds the types of programs that keep the women and children of Bosnia alive, it will be a bill we can all be proud of. I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, for the emphasis you placed on children's programs in last year's bill. It was a pleasure to work with you and your staff to ensure proper funding for child survival, basic education and UNICEF. The American people agree that helping children should be our highest foreign aid priority. In fact, 91 percent of Americans believe we should maintain or increase spending on child survival activities.1 1 Study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, 1995 3 I am not usually in favor of earmarking specific programs, but I think the creation of the Children and Diseases account was a very good idea. As you know, I felt that the new account should include funding for basic education programs. Helping children learn to read and write is a building block of development. Every year of schooling beyond third or fourth grade in a developing country is an investment that pays off in: 20 percent higher wages, a 10 percent lower birth rate, and a 10 percent increase in child survival. Most importantly, in war-torn or poverty-stricken countries, basic education gives children hope. I urge you to include basic education in the Children and Diseases account this year. I also urge you to adequately fund the United Nations Children's Fund. I am disappointed and a bit bewildered by the $10 million cut in the Clinton Administration's budget request for UNICEF. From what I can gather from talking with several key people in the Administration, the decision to cut funding to UNICEF was an arbitrary one. I have yet to hear the Administration express any criticism of UNICEF; instead, I hear about the needs of other United Nations programs. 2 Report by the Academy for Educational Development, 1995 |