Victor Fazio: “sometimes these bills are known for what they do and sometimes for what they do not do. I think that most of us today…”

“sometimes these bills are known for what they do and sometimes for what they do not do. I think that most of us today are pleased that we are beginning to attend to the problems created by the disasters that have befallen this country over the last number of months. But the sad reality is that this bill will be known for what it does not do, and that is, deal with the U.N. arrearage and with the funding of the International Monetary Fund. We are on the verge of a potential loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs because of the sickness in the economies of a number of nations in Southeast Asia, potentially South Korea, exacerbated by problems in Japan of a very different nature, but all of which need to be addressed by an international agency we helped create and we lead called the IMF. Their funding has been held up. While we may have some vague assurances that it will come before us, we do not know when, in what form or whether or not it will be adequate or timely to meet the needs that we as Americans have in the economic sphere. Yes, we are booming in our country. Our economy is producing at a rate unheard of in post-World War II America. All of the indices are in positive territory. But leadership requires us to look to the future, to see on the horizon the iceberg that could well bring us down. Our failure to fund the IMF in this bill at this time could well be a monumental mistake that we cannot even fully understand and appreciate at this time.”