Date: 2007-06-20
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. first I would like to thank the gentleman from Florida. my good friend. Mr. HASTINGS. for the time. I would also like to thank Chairwoman LOWEY and Ranking Member WOLF for their efforts on this undeniably important piece of legislation. This bill funds a number of U.S..Government programs and activities. including the State Department. the United States Agency for International Development. foreign. economic and military assistance. contributions to international organizations and international broadcasting programs. Even though aspects of this bill have clearly bipartisan support. there are significant areas of concern with some of the priorities that the majority has set forth in this legislation. Just over a year ago. the .people of Colombia reelected President Uribe to a second term with over 62 percent of the vote. President Uribe is the first President in over 100 years to be reelected by the Colombian people. His reelection and his extraordinarily high current approval ratings are a testament to his efforts to curb terrorism. corruption and narcotrafficking in Colombia. For years. designated terrorist organizations in Colombia have hampered efforts by the people of that great country to live in a peaceful democracy. Proactive action must continue to be taken to ensure that armed terrorists are not allowed to create social unrest through violence. With the current landscape in the world today. foreign assistance. Mr. Speaker. is as strategically important to our national interest as it is morally just. I am concerned that the underlying legislation cuts funding for Plan Colombia $59 million below the Presidents request and $86.5 million below fiscal year 2007. Plan Colombia has achieved significant results. When it began. that country was facing a civil war that was tearing it apart. Now that the plan has had time to take effect. .and with President Uribes leadership. kidnappings have fallen by 75 percent and the gross domestic product of Colombia has increased to 7 percent annually. We must not take progress in the An-. dean region for granted. however. If the United States turns its back on the region. it will falter and create a scenario that will require greater U.S. investment and sacrifice at a time when obviously we have significant responsibilities worldwide. not to mention that we would be spurning a democratically elected ally that has bravely fought corruption and narcotrafficking. Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank President Bush for his continued support for a democratic transition in Cuba. Pursuant to the recommendations of his Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. the President requested $45 million in economic support funds for Cuba prodemocracy activities. These funds would support efforts for a transition to democracy in the Western Hemispheres only totalitarian dictatorship through support for dissidents. human rights activists. independent librarians and others who risk their lives. each day for freedom in that enslaved island. Unfortunately. the bill brought forth by the majority is cutting the funds needed to support prodemocracy efforts in Cuba and funding less than 20 percent of the Presidents request. I would note that under the. bill. the other countries in the Western Hemisphere will receive over 95 percent of the funds requested by the President. and I think that is good. Yet funds to supporta democratic transition in the Western Hemispheres only totalitarian dictatorship constitute approximately 19 percent of the Presidents request. Mr. Speaker. these acts include from staging a hunger strike. to demanded access to email and the Internet and going to prison for it. to having the audacity of possessing books by Gandhi and Orwell and Martin Luther King in their homes and offering those books as an independent library to their neighbors. an act of great courage that is met by the dictatorships goon squads with violence. confiscation. of the books and often prison time. to the independent journalists who risk their livesand their families safety by writing the truth about life under the totalitarian nightmare. and who need paper and typewriters and faxes and telephones to send their stories out. to the children of political prisoners who have received the only toys they have ever seen because of the solidarity of this United States program of assistance. to those from all walks of life who dare to join a human rights organization in a totalitarian police state. to the physicians who open their homes to their neighbors for the practice of medicine and dispense medicines. risking prison for breaking the rules of the totalitarian state. the only employer in the country. or the physicians whorefuse to perform the forced abortions ordered by the state when there is any indication whatsoever of a problematic pregnancy. so the regime can keep its infant mortality statistics low. Mr. Speaker. that is how one of my heroes. Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet began his heroic.journey as a prodemocracy activist. He subsequently has become a great prodemocracy leader. I carry a card with his photograph with me at all times. He is currently in a dark and damp dungeon. sentenced to 25 years in -the gulag for having the audacity of peacefully advocating for democracy and free elections in Cuba. Mr. Speaker. we cannot send aid to him in prison. The regime will not allow it. But we can help his family and his colleagues in the struggle for freedom. These are the acts of civic resistance that have grown exponentially in recent years. despite a tremendous increase in the dictatorships brutal repression. and those are the people. the heroes that I have mentioned. that we help with this program. that we will seek to increase funding for through the Presidents requested level by an amendment that I will introduce with my friend and colleague Representative ALBIO SIRES of New Jersey. and that I will ask all freedomloving Members of this House to support. Last February. Mr. Speaker. the six Cuban American Members of this Congress. BOB MENENDEZ. MEL MARTINEZ.