Porter Goss: “Mr. Chairman, again I think we are going at cross purposes here and I realize that I have hit a chord of real compassion…”

“Mr. Chairman, again I think we are going at cross purposes here and I realize that I have hit a chord of real compassion which has made the gentleman be, I think, very concerned but totally unnecessarily so. We have a commitment from the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations that programs that are passing muster, which are titles I and II, much better in getting right to the compassion need are the appropriate place for this money to go. What brought my attention to this particular title problem was a problem that happened in Somalia where the war lords were abusing this title, I am told, and requiring people to come into the city, for political reasons, in order to get this food. This was using this sort of as a political chip to coerce people, who are in dire straits, as we all know, which helped escalate to another serious problem that regrettably we saw another tragedy involving American servicemen on. We go to the IG's reports at USID on this matter and start looking at the fraud, waste, and abuse. I have no problem in sharing America's wonderfully blessed abundant resources with those truly in need, subject, of course, to rational and prudent constraints of our own domestic needs in this country.”