Speech by Rep.
David Obey (D-Wisconsin), June 9, 2006
Mr. OBEY.
Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.
Mr. Chairman, I want to put in perspective what this amendment is trying
to do. As I understand the situation, this bill raises the eradication
funds in Colombia by $30 million. It also cuts $103 million from refugees.
All Mr. McGovern is trying to do is to take that $30 million increase
that the committee has provided for eradication in Colombia and move
it back into an account that has already been cut by almost three times
as much as the amount of money he is trying to put back in the refugee
account.
I remember when Bill Lehman from Florida used to take this floor every
year. There was no better human being I have ever met in this place
than Bill Lehman, and he used to routinely remind us that there is no
more miserable person in the world than a refugee. They live in often
abominable conditions, and they have nowhere to turn.
We have Members in this House who will engage in all kinds of meaningless
gestures when it comes to Darfur. They will sign onto a letter to the
President, and they will sign onto a bill that they know is going nowhere,
and then they will put out their press releases posing for political
holy pictures on how much they care about refugees and how much they
care about Darfur. And yet what they do doesn't produce one plugged
nickel.
If you want to do something real for those wretched creatures, you will
do what Mr. McGovern is trying to do: You will add this tiny little
dollop of money back to the refugee account.
I mean, if you want a perfect example of money that isn't working, it's
money that is spent on eradication.
I remember when we had a huge fight under the Reagan administration
about how we were going to pull money into eradication and interdiction.
And then I had one of the people in charge of the program come to me
silently and say, ``Don't believe what we are saying. We only interdict
2 percent of the drugs.''
I thought conservatives routinely gave liberals lectures about looking
at the effectiveness of programs. Well, I can tell you right now, we
are not being effective when you have to cut half the food rations for
refugees in Darfur. We are not being very effective in meeting our obligations
there.
So I would suggest if anybody thinks we are harming the program in Colombia,
all we are doing is saying return that budget request to the same level
that was requested by that well-known liberal leftist, George W. Bush.
That is all this amendment is doing. I would urge its adoption.
...
Mr. OBEY.
I thank the gentleman. I would simply say the fact is, you don't just
have to look at what this bill does today on this amendment. You have
to look at the whole and what it did yesterday on the Egypt amendment,
coupled with what it is doing here today, and that means we have shortchanged
those refugees.
As of June
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