Speech by Rep. Julia Carson (D-Indiana), July 24, 2001

Speech by Rep. Julia Carson (D-Indiana), July 24, 2001
Mr. Chairman, I thank the Chair for appreciating the work of the officers here and around the world.

I speak on behalf of the McGovern-Hoekstra-Pelosi-Morella amendment that adds $50 million to infectious disease programs to combat tuberculosis and $50 million to the Child Survival and Maternal Health Program.

This money will be taken from the Andean Counterdrug Initiative that would provide $100 million in additional U.S. funding for Plan Colombia. The current administration asked for a 1-year $1 billion military aid package to continue funding Plan Colombia and other antidrug initiatives in surrounding countries.

While I respect that initiative, I prefer to support this global health amendment because I believe that additional funding for the Colombian military will only draw the United States further into Colombia's brutal 4-decade old civil war.

Furthermore, I cannot in good conscience support funding for a military in Colombia that has close connections to paramilitaries responsible for some 70 percent of the most severe human rights violations in the world. Seventy-one percent of the 319,000 people internally displaced last year were driven from their homes by paramilitaries, according to the Colombian President's office. The $1.3 billion aid package that we sent Colombia last year has not improved the Colombian military human rights record. Hardly any high ranking military officials implicated in connection to paramilitaries have been dismissed since the United States aid began to be implemented last August.

Mr. Chairman, as reported in last Thursday's issue of The New York Times, 40 percent of Africans with AIDS have tuberculosis, which is the leading killer of people with AIDS. Tuberculosis kills 2 million people each year, and is on the rise globally. Tuberculosis is the greatest killer of people with HIV-AIDS and young women worldwide. Tuberculosis treatment in the form of directly observed treatment, DOTS, is one of the most cost-effective treatments available today.

And to combat high infant mortality rates, a small investment in programs such as measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, and polio will greatly impact many children's lives.

We can save billions of dollars in the future if polio and other preventable diseases are no longer a threat to children, and countries no longer need to vaccinate their children. The change in children's health worldwide is priceless. The funding needed to achieve this goal is invaluable by comparison.

Mr. Chairman, I urge strong support of this amendment.

As of October 3, 2001, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r107:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+20010724)