Jim Kolbe: “let me just say once again I think this would be a very wrong-headed amendment, the wrong thing for us to do. This is…”

“let me just say once again I think this would be a very wrong-headed amendment, the wrong thing for us to do. This is not symbolic. This cuts all the ESF funds that we provide to the country of Mexico, which is, relative to most of our programs around the world, very, very small because Mexico is a country that is beyond the least developed; it is now rapidly developing. The money that we provide here is important money. It is money that helps promote democracy. It is money that helps promote such things as property rights. It is money that helps promote such things as microfinance. It is the kinds of things that we do that help provide economic livelihood for the people in Mexico. This is about job creation. It is about allowing people to live and work in Mexico and not have to come to the United States. If you want less migration from Mexico to the United States, we have got to give them a hand, a hand up to prevent them from having to come to the United States because they have no way of taking care of their families. So this would be the wrong thing for us to do in terms of cutting the economic support funds for Mexico. It is also the wrong thing to do to a neighbor with whom we have a very good relationship. Do we have problems? Of course we have problems. Are there times when we disagree? Of course we disagree. Would we like to have more help on some of the migration problems and the drug interdiction problems? Yes, we want more help.…”