Speech by Rep.
Barbara Lee (D-California), June 9, 2006
Ms. LEE.
Mr. Chairman, let me thank the gentleman for yielding and also just
thank you for your strong advocacy for human rights, global refugees
on so many fronts.
I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this effort. This amendment simply
provides an additional $30 million to the Emergency Refugee and Migration
Assistance Account, and it still includes, and I have to reiterate,
it still includes $515 million for Colombia, and it is still $9 million
more than the President's 2007 request for Colombia.
To my colleague Mr. Mica and his comments with regard to liberals, and
I do not know if you said you were tired of liberals or fed up with
liberals, but let me just say to you that if helping our country respond
quickly and flexibly to humanitarian disasters, if rethinking a policy
and making sure that we are trying to really reduce the kidnappings
and violence in Colombia, if that is what we are trying to do, then
I am very proud, I am very proud to be a liberal.
In recent years, ERMA was used to help drought-ridden Somalis and provide
refugee aid to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In
Sudan, where more than 3.4 million people are displaced, urgent needs
are there for ERMA funding. The funding need is very clear.
After Sudan, Colombia has the largest number of internally displaced
persons. Estimates range from 2 to 3.6 million individuals. Less than
a third of Colombia's IDPs receive emergency assistance, and many, many
have to wait months to receive that emergency aid. And let me tell you,
of those traditionally marginalized Afro Colombians and indigenous communities,
these individuals, these communities have been disproportionately affected.
In Burundi, 2.2 million people, including refugees and returnees, need
immediate aid to cope with malnourishment and disease. In Northern Uganda,
there are more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons desperately
in need of assistance.
These statistics just really touch the surface of an expanding global
refugee crisis.
Due to the critical need, the account reached its lowest point in a
decade. We can and we must do more to help global victims of violence
cope with the loss of everything that they know and love. Even if the
additional $30 million that this amendment provides only allows ERMA
to ensure food deliveries to helpless refugees, countless lives will
be saved. Innumerable people will feel the goodwill and support of the
United States.
This is about helping persons who have been stripped of family, friends,
homes, and their basic protections. Today we need to stand by the victims
of violence by supporting this amendment.
As of June
13, 2006 this page was also available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r109:FLD001:H53648
