Statement of The Honorable William J. Coyne Before the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and House Committee on Appropriations Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by thanking you for allowing me to appear before the Subcommittee this morning to testify about microcredit lending programs. These programs provide many of the poorest people around the world with the opportunity to work their own way out of poverty. I want to thank the subcommittee members, and particularly Chairman Callahan and Congressman Wilson, for their work on the fiscal year 1996 foreign appropriations bill. I also want to thank you for your support for international child survival programs and UNICEF. Finally, I want to express my appreciation for the report language in support of microcredit lending that was included in the fiscal year 1996 Foreign Operations appropriations bill. Last year the subcommittee had to make many difficult funding decisions. The subcommittee faces an equally difficult challenge for 1997. I am here to ask you to adopt stronger protection for microcredit lending that aids the poorest people. Mr. Chairman, microcredit is an economically sound, even profitable, method of fighting poverty. Microcredit loans are used by the borrowers for productive investment. As the loans are repaid, the resources are recycled to help more and more poor individuals. The loans are organized in such a way -- often with shared responsibility among a group of borrowers with a strong work ethic -that the loans are almost always repaid. Microcredit programs in Latin America sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and managed by the Foundation for International Community Assistance or FINCA, as well as Banco Sol's project in Bolivia, achieved repayment rates of at least 95 percent. Stories of microcredit borrowers are stories of courage and human dignity. They demonstrate the vast depth of the human spirit and the possibility of triumph over the cruelties of poverty, a victory that people who are very poor can achieve for themselves when offered access to basic resources. Mr. Chairman, it would seem that microcredit lending is so obviously worthwhile that it should not need special protection. The Agency for International Development has in fact created a new central microenterprise office, which I understand has been doing a very good job of supporting effective programs and institutions. But as we are all facing the challenge of doing more with less -- and as foreign assistance programs are often singled out as deficit reduction targets -- I am concerned that microcredit lending needs specific protection in the foreign operations appropriations bill. I hope that you will provide such protection for this program, and that you will continue to ensure that at least half of all microenterprise resources go to very small loans to the poorest of the poor. Finally, I hope that you will pursue a policy of channeling microcredit resources to private voluntary organizations that have a record of effectively reaching the very poor with small loans. This will indeed allow us to do more with less. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Wilson, thank you again for giving me the opportunity to testify about this very important issue. Mr. CALLAHAN. Thank you. I guess you are aware that we hesitate to earmark direct funds for direct programs even though we felt like child survival, as you have mentioned, was a broad program. But we know that AID has fared pretty well in responding to your request for those programs you are interested in, and we certainly will include something in the language to further encourage that, not specifically an earmark but report language that will indicate to them that the Congress is approving of that program as well as our encouragement that they adequately fund it. Mr. COYNE. Thank you for your attention and the encouragement. Thank you very much. Mr. CALLAHAN. Thank you for coming. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1996 FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS WITNESS HON. BILL RICHARDSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Mr. CALLAHAN. Bill-Mr. Richardson-welcome to our committee. Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Let me say first that I want to congratulate you especially for the statesmanlike way you have conducted this. I mean that. I hope that doesn't sound gratuitous. Mr. Chairman, I have two suggestions. The first is, you were very generous last year in helping me with some report language towards a school in my district, the United World College, getting some scholarship support from AID. Regrettably, AID didn't do what you suggested in report language. I would ask once again. that you help me with the same language in this fiscal year. It could have been a budgetary reason. The main reason I came to see you was to talk to you about Burma. I have not in the past joined other Members of Congress in suggesting investment sanctions against Burma, new investment sanctions relating to American_investment. As you know, Senator McConnell and Congressman Rohrabacher have a bill that basically says, because of human rights conditions in Burma, there should be no new U.S. investment in Burma. We don't have an aid program there, and what I am asking, Mr. Chairman, is that you seriously consider adopting the McConnellRohrabacher language, and here is why, even though in the past I have not supported it because I feel that if you are going to have sanctions, they should be multilateral, and we are alone in this. The Government of Burma is not moving in any humanitarian way towards opening up their country, freeing up political prisoners. Secondly, they are now at a point where they are refusing visas to Senators on a bipartisan basis and Members of the House. I have been denied a visa repeatedly to make an honest assessment of where the situation is. It doesn't just include Congressman Rohrabacher and others that have tried to go there. They recently denied a visa to Jim McDermott. I am just saying, Mr. Chairman, I think you should consider looking at the McConnell language and the Rohrabacher language. I am not entirely certain that this is the correct way to go, but clearly a message has to be sent to that government. I would urge you to try to go there. I think this is something that this is going to be a very contentious country issue. I think this legislation is moving anyway through the authorizing committee, but since eventually through this subcommittee a lot of the issues surface, I am suggesting that you may want to look at moving in that direction. I have told the Government of Burma that I want to go make a firsthand assessment. I have said that May 1 is sort of my deadline in terms of travel. I am just one Member, but I think they are doing this to everybody, and they shouldn't be able to get away with this. That is all, Mr. Chairman. Mr. CALLAHAN. Thank you, Bill. And thank you for all of your knowledge in foreign affairs. With respect to Burma, I don't think we had anything in language last year, with the exception of the school in Burma that was an interest of American soldiers who parachuted into Burma during World War II and created this school, who came to us and told us the good that this school was doing, divorced from the government. I think that is the only aid that we were affording them. We want to continue to support that particular program. But if you need assistance or would like for us to contact the Government of Burma in order to insist that you go on behalf of the committee and look at Burma, and to see if there are human rights violations-I was supposed to go last year, but I didn't go because the trip would have been too long. If you need us to make any requests with the officials of former Burma, we will be happy to do that. We would appreciate, when you do have the opportunity, you reporting to us what you see. Mr. RICHARDSON. Let me formally ask you to please contact the Embassy on my behalf, and I will report back to the committee. Mr. CALLAHAN. We will do that, and we will ask that you report to this committee your findings on human rights when you go. Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1996. INTER-AMERICAN FOUNDATION WITNESS MARIA OTERO, CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mr. CALLAHAN. Maria Otero. Ms. OTERO. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify and to talk to you a bit about the value of grass-roots development to the American people. I had the benefit of and the privilege of testifying before your committee last year on the issue of microenterprise development which is what the organization that I work with, ACCION International, works with and for which I serve as Executive Vice Presi dent. Your support has been valuable in the past and I hope will continue unabated. I am also the chair of the Inter-American Foundation and I am chair of the board of directors, which is a U.S. Government agency that works in grass-roots development activities throughout the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Chairman, my testimony today will be to talk to you about the Inter-American Foundation which receives an annual appropriation from the 150 accounts and has, the President has recently requested a $20 million appropriation, which is a sum that is similar to the sum that the Foundation used for fiscal year 1996. What I would like to talk to you about, Mr. Chairman, is that this small appropriation of money that is provided to the InterAmerican Foundation is money that is well spent for the United States. I want to explain how this small amount can accomplish elements that are of interest to our national good and which can help-I would like to be able to point out how this small appropriation can help further our national interest and can help strengthen the bonds of friendship and cooperation with our neighbors in the south. We know that in the past few years historic changes have taken place in Latin America and the Caribbean that offer boundless opportunities for democratic reforms, increased trade, and improved living standards for the poor who represent the vast majority of the region's population. These changes have become possible because of the emerging democracies in these areas. I believe that our Nation's interests can be furthered if we can cement and strengthen these nascent democracies. The Inter-American Foundation provides development assistance where it is most needed, which is at the grass-roots level, and is focused on self-help. We are able to provide resources to the most needy so they can access credit, improve their skills and standard of living. What we are doing is not charity work and it is not humanitarian work. It is really work to help those who want to help themselves. We understand that however meritorious the work of the Foundation is, there is enormous pressure for us to balance the budget, and we understand that one has to reduce the spending that goes into the area of government assistance. Since I have assumed the chair, I have worked to assure that the greater local and international resources are leveraged to promote grass-roots development and thereby to lessen the dependence on U.S. Government assistance. Mr. Chairman, I would like you to know that with a very small appropriation the Inter-American Foundation is currently leveraging significant off-budget resources from local and international, private and public entities to promote grass-roots development. By doing this I think that we are having much greater impact than we think through the small appropriation that is provided, and we believe this is an important use of the taxpayers' money. Let me highlight two examples. In the Andean region, the Foundation has played a key role in creating a regional grass-roots organization that can leverage local monies as well as international re sources for grass-roots development. There are organizations in Colombia and Peru that are committed to involving the business sectors in their countries in improving the lives of the poor and are using this mechanism in order to make resources available. In Colombia, we have received through a cooperative agreement about half a million dollars that is enabling Fundacion Čorona there to create a Colombian center which will promote volunteer work. These are just a few examples of what the Foundation is trying to do right now. We are working to leverage resources in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Central America, and Venezuela. We believe that it is with this activism at the local community level that values and standard of living are increased in Latin America and the Caribbean. This I believe, Mr. Chairman, brings great credit to the American people and promotes our national interest throughout the hemisphere. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank your staff for the guidance that they have provided to the Inter-American Foundation. I would be delighted to answer any questions. Mr. CALLAHAN. We thank you. [The information follows:] |