The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“MONTREAL PROTOCOL FUND” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S11428-S11429 on Sept. 24, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
MONTREAL PROTOCOL FUND
Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I commend the Senator from Massachusetts for offering this amendment. I am a cosponsor of the amendment. The Montreal Protocol has always enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the Congress and public support across the country.
As our colleagues will remember, it was President Reagan who negotiated and signed the Protocol in 1987. Since that time, many strengthening amendments have been adopted and ratified during the administrations of both President Bush and President Clinton.
One of the most effective provisions of the protocol is an international fund that provides assistance to developing nations to aid their phaseout of ozone depleting substances. This is not a U.S. aid program. It is an international fund supported by 35 countries. It has assisted projects to reduce ozone use in 120 developing countries.
Mr. President, I can tell the Senate that the Montreal Protocol Fund is a very cost effective program because the U.S. General Accounting Office audited the program in 1997 and gave it high praise. GAO had only one recommendation to make to improve its performance and that recommendation has since been implemented. I would note that the U.S. business community also strongly supports this program. Quite often the assistance provided by the fund is used by developing nations to buy our technology to reduce CFC use. So, there is no question that this program works and has been highly successful.
The only issue is whether there is room for the U.S. contribution in this budget. We have pledged approximately $39 million for this coming year. There is $27 million in the Foreign Operations appropriation. Which means that we need an additional $12 million to honor our commitment. The amendment by the Senator from Massachusetts would provide that $12 million from EPA's budget. This follows a long tradition of paying for part of our contribution from State Department funds and part of our contribution through the EPA budget.
Can EPA afford $12 million for this purpose. We know that the budget is tight this year. But it is not so tight that we need to entirely eliminate this expenditure. In fact, I would note that this bill provides EPA $116 million more than the President requested. As the Senator from Maryland, Senator Mikulski, has said many times here on the floor, this bill is still a work in progress. I am confident that the very able managers of the bill can find room for the Montreal Protocol Fund in a budget for EPA that provides $116 million more than the President's request for the coming year.
We have our differences here in the Senate over environmental policy. But everyone has to admit that the international program to protect the stratospheric ozone layer negotiated by President Reagan has been a tremendous success. The work is not quite done. CFCs are not entirely out of our economy. In fact, the U.S. remains the third largest user of CFCs. But we are well on the way to a CFC-free world. And this program, the Montreal Protocol Fund, has been a very important part of the effort. It deserves our continued support.
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