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.
“DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1771-E1772 on July 15, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, AND RELATED PROGRAMS
APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010
______
speech of
HON. VIRGINIA FOXX
of north carolina
in the house of representatives
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3081) making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes:
Ms. FOXX. Mr. Chair, the vote that I took this afternoon on H.R. 3081 was one of the toughest votes that I have had to take in this House since I have been here in my 4\1/2\ years. The problem with the bill and with the decision that had to be made is because the bill contained funding for aid to Israel, our best friend in the world.
I have always been and will continue to be an extremely strong supporter of Israel. Israel has always been a good friend to the United States, the people of this country and the people of Israel share the same values. However, the bill had so many flaws that it made it very difficult for a pro-life, fiscal conservative such as I to vote for the bill despite my very strong support for Israel.
Israel is a vital American ally in the Middle East and deserves our full support as it serves as the preeminent democracy in the region. Throughout the history of our relations with Israel, the U.S. has stood by this nation and supported her even when she seemed hemmed in by insurmountable forces.
Today the very existence of Israel is a testament to the power of freedom and democracy, particularly in a region known more for despotic regimes than for its beacons of liberty. That is why I am proud to stand with our ally Israel and support policies that help maintain our strong ties with this critical nation in the Middle East.
My strong support for Israel is what makes me so disappointed about this appropriations bill. This bill, when emergency supplemental funds were not taken into account, was still 32 percent more than the regular fiscal year 2009 appropriations. I am taking the liberty of using some of the figures from my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price), which were also presented today on the floor in terms of explaining the bill that we voted on this afternoon.
We are facing a fiscal crisis in this country. This administration and this Congress, led by Speaker Pelosi, are spending this country into a terrible, terrible situation. We are mortgaging our children and grandchildren's future with excess spending; and it has to stop somewhere.
Had this bill merely contained the funding for Israel, it would have been very easy for me to have supported it, although I was quite concerned that the bill reduced the funding for Israel by 7.2 percent below last year's funding level and 23.3 percent below the request. But, as I said earlier, the total bill had an increase of 33.8 percent compared to last year. What kind of message does it send when we increase overall spending levels in this bill by a third and yet cut funding to a critical ally and democratic partner in the Middle East?
One of the most troubling increases in this bill was a 20 percent increase to the United Nations Population Fund and a 19 percent increase to International Family Planning. The United Nations Population Fund aids China's one-child policy, coercive abortion, and sterilization. International Family Planning goes to organizations that promote and provide abortion services through International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stokes International.
In addition, the Democrats had rejected four cost-cutting Republican amendments that had been presented which could have made this bill a lot more palatable to the 97 Republicans who voted against it.
Another problem with the bill is that there was a false assumption that the Obama administration will live up to its promise of no more war supplementals for Iraq and Afghanistan. The President has gone back on every promise that he made during the campaign. He has already asked for a supplemental this year, says it was a carryover from last year, but that won't happen again. However, before the ink was dry on the amended full committee report of this bill, the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Congressman Murtha, publicly stated that another supplemental is necessary to fund the troops because of the low fiscal year 2010 Defense allocation.
So the promise was that all of the money for the war was going to be here and we wouldn't have to do more supplementals. That isn't going to happen.
This bill also avoids making hard fiscal choices about spending abroad while we face a financial crisis here. This is not the way we should be going. We should be funding our friends and our allies. We should be helping Israel which is the only true democracy in the Middle East and who stands by us year after year, day after day. But funding things like abortion and international family planning is not the way to go.
____________________
