Department Of State, Foreign Operations, And Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Chairman, as the designee of Mr. Lewis, I am pleased to offer this amendment today to give the House an opportunity to keep funding for multilateral assistance at last year's level. In fact, this is actually a 1 percent increase, trying to keep it as close to inflation as we can. I would prefer, as a fiscal conservative, to cut far more at this time of record debt, record deficit, of increasing unemployment; but we want to give the liberal majority some opportunity to cut somewhere. And if we will not cut foreign multilateral assistance simply by keeping the level of funding at last year's level, plus a little 1 percent bump, where will we cut?

In our personal lives, if we have a financial downturn, someone in the family loses a job, if there has been a financial hardship of some type in your personal life, if as a business you have suffered a dramatic downturn in sales, if you lose money or your income is reduced, then all of us in our private lives in the private sector understand that you start to cut expenses. The first thing to go, for example, in the private sector certainly is discretionary dollars in advertising. Or in a personal life, as much as I might like to have a swimming pool or expand the house, you just don't do it when your income is reduced; and the United States of America is in a similar situation.

The Nation is hurting. Unemployment is climbing. We have lost a record number of jobs. Under the new liberal leadership of this Congress, our new liberal administration in the White House, this Congress, this President has spent more money in less time than any Congress in the history of the United States.

In the first 6 months of this year under the budget adopted by this new liberal majority, the amount of debt created in the first 6 months of this year exceeds the amount of debt created from the time of George Washington to President George W. Bush. The national debt now exceeds $11 trillion. The deficit exceeds a trillion dollars. We as a Nation are on a path to become Argentina if we don't stop spending money.

So those of us in the fiscally conservative minority have offered in the Appropriations Committee multiple amendments. We have offered amendments on the floor to the limited extent we can under these very restrictive guidelines. We, in the conservative minority, have offered amendments to cut 5 percent; 1 percent; 10 percent. On every bill on every occasion, we have searched for some way, somehow that the liberal majority might try to save some of our kids' money.

It hasn't happened yet. I haven't seen a cut yet that the liberal majority will agree to. This amendment today is simply to title V, multilateral assistance, asking that we keep funding at 2009 levels. In fact, the 2009 spending level is a 16 percent increase over 2008. And the programs, the international organizations that are included under title V, include Global Environmental Facility, a clean technology fund. There is even a new and completely unauthorized climate technology fund and strategic climate fund that costs a total of $300 million. These have not been approved by Congress, and they are just stuck into this bill. I know there are a lot of noble, good things accomplished by our foreign aid bill.

One that is near and dear to my heart is my support for the State of Israel. I personally support Mr. Weiner's amendment. I think Saudi Arabia can certainly afford to pull their own weight. But our good friends in Israel, I think one of the reasons God blesses the United States of America is America is the sword and shield of Israel. We have an obligation as a Nation to stand behind our friends around the world and help them. But at a time of economic downturn, at a time when so many Americans are losing their jobs, and at a time as we as guardians of the U.S. Treasury have an obligation to try to save money everywhere we can and follow Dave Ramsey's advice, don't spend money you don't have; don't borrow money to pay off borrowed money, the amendment is offered today in all sincerity to try to hold the line.

And if we won't cut here, Mr. Chairman, where will we cut? If we won't cut spending for multilateral assistance to foreign aid, which all of our constituents get, if we won't cut at the edges in money that we don't need to spend at this level for foreign assistance, where will we cut?

Are we not going to save any money anywhere, folks? This is a $500 million savings to keep us at 2009 levels.

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