Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Chairman, Appropriations Subcommittee For State And Foreign Operations
On The Fiscal Year 2008 State And Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
September 6, 2007

Mr. LEAHY.   Mr. President, I want to begin my remarks on the Fiscal Year 2008 State and Foreign Operations bill by thanking Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell for calling up this bill for consideration by the Senate.  With the cooperation of all Senators and a little luck, we can get it done very quickly.    

I also want to thank Chairman Byrd and Ranking Member Cochran for the allocation our subcommittee received.  

I am very appreciative of Senator Gregg and his staff for the bipartisan way they worked with me and my staff.  This has enabled us to maintain the working relationship that I had with Senator McConnell during the many years he chaired this subcommittee.  It has once again enabled us to write a balanced bill that was reported by the Appropriations Committee with the support of 28 of its 29 members. 

As a housekeeping matter, I want to remind all Senators that on August 2, 2007, by a vote of 83-14, the Senate approved S.1, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, clearing the measure for the President.  When signed by the President, this ethics reform legislation will significantly improve the transparency and accountability of the legislative process.

While the President has not yet acted on that legislation, I want to inform Senators that we intend to abide by the requirements of that legislation during the consideration of this bill.  The legislation requires that the Chairman of the Committee of jurisdiction certify that certain information related to congressionally directed spending be identified and that the required information be available on a publicly accessible congressional website in a searchable format at least 48 hours before a vote on the pending bill.

The information required includes identification of the congressionally directed spending and the name of the Senator who requested such spending.  With regard to the pending legislation, the Committee bill and report do not include any congressionally directed spending as defined in S. 1.  A description of how the Committee addresses this issue is contained in the Committee report numbered 110-128, dated July 10, 2007, and has been available on the internet for nearly two months.

I am submitting for the Record the certification by the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed at the close of my remarks. 

Mr. President, Senator Gregg and I did our best to address the many requests we received from Members, as well as the President’s priorities. 

As always, the bill falls short in some areas, but that is the nature of the Appropriations process.  We had difficult choices to make, but we tried to treat everyone fairly.

This bill contains a total of $34.4 billion in budget authority.  Although the President has threatened to veto all appropriations bills that are above his budget request, this bill is $700 million below the President’s fiscal year 2008 budget request.  I repeat, this bill is $700 million below the President’s budget request.

Without taking the time to go into great detail about the provisions in this bill, I want to highlight a few issues:

The bill provides a significant increase for State Department and United States embassy operations and security costs, part of which is to implement the Secretary’s Transformational Diplomacy Initiative.

We provide $1.35 billion for assessed contributions to international peacekeeping missions.  These funds support peacekeeping missions the United States Government has voted for in Sudan, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, and other nations.      

We provide $5.09 billion to combat HIV/AIDS, which is $940 million above the President’s request.  This includes $590 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  Added to the $300 million in the Labor, Health and Human Services bill, the Senate provides a total of $890 million for the Global Fund, an increase of $166 million above last year’s budget. 

The bill contains $476.5 million for Child Survival and Maternal Health.  These programs address the most basic public health needs in the world’s poorest countries. 

We provide $509 million for Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs, which many Senators requested additional funding for, particularly to build bridges with predominantly Muslim countries.    

This bill supports life saving programs for millions of destitute refugees and displaced persons in Darfur, Iraq, the Middle East and Colombia.  More than 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes.  Many of these people have worked for the United States Government, U.S. contractors, or the U.S. news media and are being targeted because of those affiliations.  Other Iraqis are being killed simply because they are academic scholars or officials of Iraq’s Ministry of Education.  We have a moral responsibility to help these people.   

There is up to $1 billion in this bill for humanitarian and reconstruction programs in Afghanistan to help counter the resurgence of the Taliban and al Qaeda.  

The bill provides $1.2 billion for the Millennium Challenge Corporation.  We support the MCC’s mission.  We believe it has significant potential to help countries whose governments are demonstrating sound fiscal and development policies.   

However, the MCC has disbursed only about $100 million of the $6 billion appropriated since 2004.  With so many other competing demands, we could not afford to tie up more money for the MCC and also fund the priorities of Senators and other urgent needs.  I do hope and expect that we can find additional funding for the MCC when we meet with the House in conference.   

Senators should know that there are provisions in this bill concerning international family planning that the President has said he will veto.  That is no surprise, since these provisions are no different from what was contained in past bills Senator McConnell and I brought to the Senate floor.  They are supported by a majority of Senators, but not enough to override a veto.

Again, these same provisions have been in the State, Foreign Operations bill year after year.  Each year, the President says he will veto the bill because of them.  And each year, they get resolved in conference with the House.  This year will be no exception.

Mr. President, I would remind all Senators:  this is a carefully balanced bill.  Any amendment that would add funding to an account or program requires an offset.  We urge all Senators to come to the floor today with any amendments so Senator Gregg and I can try to resolve them quickly.  We want to finish the bill tomorrow at the latest. 

For all of the reasons I have noted and many more, the Senate should pass this bill without delay.   

Mr. President,  I ask unanimous consent that the committee amendment be agreed to, that the bill as thus amended be considered original text for the purpose of further amendment, and that no points of order be waived by virtue of this agreement.

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