Recess
Floor Speech
RECESS -- (Senate - March 03, 2009)
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, would the Senator yield?
Mr. WICKER. I will yield to the Senator.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Dakota.
Mr. THUNE. I ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor to the Senator's amendment.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. WICKER. Madam President, I spoke at some length yesterday about this amendment. It deals with one issue and one issue only--whether U.S. taxpayer dollars will be provided in this omnibus bill to help fund coercive population control policies, such as China's one-child policy--a policy that relies on coerced abortion and forced sterilization.
Specifically, this pro-child, pro-family, pro-woman amendment would restore the Kemp-Kasten antipopulation control provision, which has been a fundamental part of our foreign policy for almost a quarter century. As it has always done, Kemp-Kasten allows the President of the United States to certify that funds are not used for coercive family practices. As it has always done, the provision would allow the President to release those funds after he has made such a certification.
My amendment is needed because the underlying bill reverses this longstanding provision. The omnibus bill that we have before us purports to retain Kemp-Kasten, but then it also includes six troubling words that effectively kill the provision. In addition to Kemp-Kasten, the bill directs funds to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA ``notwithstanding any other provision of law.''
Perhaps these words were added inadvertently. I don't know. But the words that are added--those six little words--represent a loophole that in effect guts Kemp-Kasten and alters this longstanding bipartisan foreign policy in the process.
Some people may ask why restoring Kemp-Kasten is important, and here is why. The U.N. Population Fund, a group that is in line to receive some $50 million in this bill, has actively supported, comanaged, and whitewashed crimes against women under the cover of family planning. Under the Kemp-Kasten provision, the last administration withheld money from UNFPA for this very reason. I would like to quote then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, who stated:
UNFPA support of and involvement in China's population planning activities allows the Chinese Government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion. Therefore, it is not permissible to continue funding UNFPA at this time.
That is the end of the quote from our Secretary of State.
A further analysis by the U.S. State Department of the Chinese program on family planning reveals this--I will quote from the State Department analysis:
China's birth limitation program retains harshly coercive elements in law and practice, including coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization.
Does anyone in this Senate want to spend U.S. funds to support these activities: coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization? I think we ought to have a unanimous consensus in the Congress that we have no business spending our taxpayers' dollars on such things. The report goes on to say:
The State Department summarized these practices in its 2007 China Country Report on Human Rights Practices. ..... These measures include the implementation of birth limitation regulations, the provision of obligatory contraceptive services, and the use of incentives and penalties to induce compliance.
Further in the report, and I continue to quote:
China's Birth Limitation Program relies on harshly coercive measures such as so-called ``social maintenance'' fees.
And to skip down further:
In families that already have two children, one parent is often pressured to undergo sterilization. A number of provinces have legal provisions that require a woman to have an abortion if her pregnancy violates government regulations. .....
I wish we could stop this practice worldwide. China is a sovereign nation, and they have the power to impose these laws on their people. But taxpayer funds should not be spent from the U.S. Treasury to assist an organization that funds such practices in China.
The most recent State Department report on UNFPA activities shows that their funds are indeed funneled to Chinese agencies that coercively enforce the very practices I just read about. Are we to believe that in less than a year the UNFPA has changed its practices? That is not a bet I am willing to take with the taxpayers' money.
The Wicker amendment should be adopted to once again give the President, President Obama, the opportunity to certify that UNFPA, or any other organization, is not participating in family planning techniques such as the harsh techniques I just read about.
My amendment does not represent a radical shift or departure from what is normal. In fact, it simply returns the language in this bill to language that was agreed upon by both Republicans and Democrats in last year's Foreign Operations appropriations bill during a time when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives and controlled the Senate of the United States. The language that I am offering was agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats.
Finally, there have been concerns voiced about the need not to make changes in this bill. We have been told this bill has been preconferenced. Persons say that in doing so we might delay the bill's passage by sending it back to the House for approval. I admit the funding contained in this bill is important, but that does not mean we can forget about our jobs as legislators. I do not believe the other body will let this bill die simply because we are doing what is right, by clarifying our country's policy of standing against coercive population control practices like forced abortion and forced sterilization.
I realize opinions in this Chamber and across our country vary greatly on the issue of abortion. I am pro-life and I am mindful that some Members in this body would describe themselves as pro-choice. But regardless of where we come down on that issue, can't we agree that we do not want to spend taxpayer dollars to force this on women who do not want this procedure? We ought to all be able to agree that is wrong and that is a misuse of American taxpayer funds.
The United States should not turn its head on coercive family control programs like sterilization and forced abortion, and our taxpayers should not have their dollars used to help fund such horrible acts. My amendment will help stop that from happening. It restores a longstanding foreign policy provision. It reflects our Nation's commitment to promoting human rights. I urge its adoption.
I yield the floor.
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AMENDMENT NO. 635
Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and I be able to call up amendment No. 635 and make it pending.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from South Dakota [Mr. Thune], proposes an amendment numbered 635.
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Mr. THUNE. Let me explain very simply what this amendment does.
Last summer, President Bush signed into law a $50 billion foreign aid bill; HIV and AIDS was the purpose, the direction of the bill. Included as part of that PEPFAR bill was a $2 billion authorization that I and a bipartisan group of Senators worked on, including that redirected money to critical public safety, health care, and water needs in Indian Country. All of the Senators who worked on the amendment's inclusion in the final package, including now Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, recognized there are great needs internationally, but they also realized we have equal or maybe even greater needs right here at home on our Nation's reservations.
The final PEPFAR bill created a $2 billion, 5-year authorization beginning in fiscal year 2009 for an emergency fund for Indian health and safety. Over the 5-year authorization, $750 million could be spent on public safety, $250 million on health care, and $1 billion for water settlements.
In order to ensure that the emergency fund for Indian health and safety was funded as quickly as possible, I and six of my colleagues sent a letter to President Bush last year asking that he include funding in the fiscal year 2010 budget for the emergency fund. Then we worked to get a total of 21 Senators to send a similar letter to President Obama on November 24, 2008. I believe this continued bipartisan effort underscores the support for addressing the needs that exist in Indian Country.
What the amendment does is seek to remedy this without raising the overall cost of the omnibus bill. It simply reduces discretionary spending throughout the bill by $400 million, the fiscal year 2009 authorized amount from PEPFAR, and redirects that money to the emergency fund for Indian safety and health. This amounts to less than one-tenth of 1 percent cut from each program funded in the omnibus bill.
Bear in mind the omnibus bill includes an overall funding increase of 8.3 percent over last year's appropriated level--that on top of the stimulus bill that passed earlier this year that, as we all know, poured billions of dollars into many of these Federal agencies. So what I am suggesting is we carve out one-tenth of 1 percent of the cost of this bill. As I said, take the overall increase in this year's bill from 8.3 percent over last year's appropriated amount to an 8.2-percent increase over last year's amount.
Since this appropriations bill was put together--I think it was put together in very short order behind closed doors, not to mention the fact that none of the nine appropriations bills were ever voted on in the Senate--I believe my amendment is a commonsense proposal that will ensure that we allocate tax dollars where they are needed the most.
The needs are great in Indian Country and I know many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree.
Nationwide 1 percent of the U.S. population does not have safe and adequate water for drinking and sanitation needs. On our Nation's reservations this number climbs to an average of 11 percent and in the worst parts of Indian Country to 35 percent.
This lack of reliable safe water leads to high incidences of disease and infection. The Indian Health Service has estimated that for each $1 it spends on safe drinking water and sewage systems it gets a twentyfold return in health benefits.
The Indian Health Service estimates that in order to provide all Native Americans with safe drinking water and sewage systems in their home they would need over $2.3 billion.
Nationally, Native Americans are three times as likely to die from diabetes compared to the rest of the population.
An individual that is served by Indian Health Service is 50 percent more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
On the Oglala Sioux Reservation in my home State of South Dakota the average life expectancy for males is 56 years old. In Iraq it is 58, Haiti it is 59, and in Ghana it is 60, all higher than right here in America.
One out of every three Native American women will be raped in their lifetime.
According to a recent Department of the Interior report, tribal jails are so grossly insufficient when it comes to cell space, that only half of the offenders who should be incarcerated are being put in jail.
That same report found that constructing or rehabilitating only those detention centers that are most in need will cost $8.4 billion.
The South Dakota attorney general released a study at the end of last year on tribal criminal justice statistics and found: homicide rates on South Dakota reservations are almost 10 times higher than those found in the rest of South Dakota and forcible rapes on South Dakota reservations are seven times higher than those found in the rest of South Dakota.
Clearly there are great needs in Indian County and my commonsense amendment would be a good step forward in addressing some of these needs because the emergency fund for Indian safety and health can be used for: detention and IHS facility construction, rehabilitation, and replacement; investigations and prosecutions of crimes in Indian Country; cross-deputization and other cooperative agreements between State or local governments and Indian tribes; IHS contract health care; and water supply projects approved by Congress.
Passage of my original amendment to PEPFAR clearly shows a commitment by the Senate to addressing domestic priorities for Native Americans.
I urge support for my amendment to fund this authorized emergency fund for fiscal year 2009.
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