Andre Carson: “Mr. Chairman, I thank the Chair for appreciating the work of the officers here and around the world. I speak on behalf…”

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the Chair for appreciating the work of the officers here and around the world. I speak on behalf of the McGovern-Hoekstra-Pelosi-Morella amendment that adds $50 million to infectious disease programs to combat tuberculosis and $50 million to the Child Survival and Maternal Health Program. This money will be taken from the Andean Counterdrug Initiative that would provide $100 million in additional U.S. funding for Plan Colombia. The current administration asked for a 1-year $1 billion military aid package to continue funding Plan Colombia and other antidrug initiatives in surrounding countries. While I respect that initiative, I prefer to support this global health amendment because I believe that additional funding for the Colombian military will only draw the United States further into Colombia's brutal 4-decade old civil war. Furthermore, I cannot in good conscience support funding for a military in Colombia that has close connections to paramilitaries responsible for some 70 percent of the most severe human rights violations in the world. Seventy-one percent of the 319,000 people internally displaced last year were driven from their homes by paramilitaries, according to the Colombian President's office. The $1.3 billion aid package that we sent Colombia last year has not improved the Colombian military human rights record.”