Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2007

FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007

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Mr. POE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the work that the committee has done on this foreign ops appropriations bill.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment resets the spending of this bill, however, to the 2006 foreign ops appropriation bill. Considering the ballooning size of the government, this would seem to be a modest gesture. Some say that $597 million is just a small drop in the bucket. That may seem true to some people who write checks for a living, but I disagree.

You tell that to the people down in Sabine Pass, Texas which was leveled during Hurricane Rita, that $597 million is not a lot of money. These good folks are wondering why we are spending money all over the world when 40,000 of them still have blue tarps on their roofs. It would seems to me that charity certainly begins at home before we raise spending to many third world countries.

I'm not asking for a massive cut in foreign programs, I am asking that Congress consider aid that we spend all over the world. I receive letters and phone calls every day from people asking us to take care of their money. It is an important to these individuals, especially people who have recently been hurt by Wilma, Rita and Katrina.

We can keep asking Americans to trust us with their money as we send it all over the world, but some day, after we have gone well too far, the American people will tell us that they have probably had enough. We cannot continue to be the guns, bread and butter to the world. We must hold the line on money we give away to other nations and take care of our people first.

So this amendment reduces overall spending. But because it would be up to the bureaucrats to decide where those actual cuts would be, and that aid that is in the interests of the United States, like aid to Israel, aid that probably ought to be increased, and they may remove that aid and continue wasteful aid that we spend, for example, the $4 million we give to Tibet so that they keep their culture, maybe even aid to Egypt, and that gives them too much discretion, I think it is in the best interest that I withdraw this amendment.

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Mr. POE. Mr. Chairman, many Americans have joined Congress in the illegal immigration debate over the past several months. Important questions on guest worker programs, detention space, and the so-called catch and release programs have been discussed numerous times.

However, one overlooked aspect of illegal immigration is the delay or the refusal of foreign countries that we give aid to to accept the ordered deportation of citizens from the United States. Many of these ordered deported have been convicted of felonies, gone to prison and U.S. penitentiaries, and illegally entered the United States initially.

A report issued in April of 2006 by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General states, that ICE's Office of Detention and Removal is being forced to devote a significant percentage of its funded detention beds, 14 percent, to illegals whose countries are either slow or unwilling to take those people back after they have been ordered deported.

The report also states that thousands of these individuals end up then being released in America as our government continues to get stonewalled by so-called friends, but turn out to be uncooperative foreign nations.

The cost incurred in fiscal year 2003 by the U.S. due to the delay or refusal of the top eight nations, including India, was $83 million to American taxpayers.

In June of 2004, America had 136,241 illegals from those top eight nations with orders to be departed, but those governments refused to take those individuals. So what happened? Of that 136,241 illegals, 98 percent of those were released and are walking free on American streets because we cannot detain them.

These costs are sure to increase along with illegal immigration from offending countries. What do illegal immigrants have to lose if they know their own country will not take them back after they have been deported?

They make their way to America, they come here illegally, they break our laws, and they know their country will refuse to take them back. The United States should not have to foot the bill for illegal immigrants because their home Nations are constructing roadblocks.

It is time we offer a proper incentive to these uncooperative nations, our so called friends. This amendment would require recipients of foreign aid to accept and repatriate nationals who have been deported from this country.

Those nations that do not accept the transfer of their nationals would not be eligible to receive American aid. These nations cannot have it both ways. This is not about punishing any particular nation, it is about asking these countries to work with us and accept our assistance, also to respect our sovereignty and sanctity of our borders and take back their lawfully-deported citizens.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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