Dan Burton: “In the area of development aid, the Clinton administration asked for $1.6 billion in developmental aid for fiscal year…”

“In the area of development aid, the Clinton administration asked for $1.6 billion in developmental aid for fiscal year 1997. The committee recommendation is for $1.150 billion, or $144 million more than what the administration requested. It seems to me that that is excessive. We have a lot of areas where we believe that AID has abused or been very excessive in spending money that was not necessary. I would like to give just a few examples. In El Salvador, AID-sponsored economists organized a socialistic land reform program in the early 1980's that nationalized land holdings, banks, and private export companies. After the United States had spent billions of dollars in El Salvador, former President Cristiani of El Salvador said that millions of dollars would be needed just to correct the damage done by United States assistance in nationalizing the economy. In other words, he is saying, because of the socialistic policies that were put forth by AID in giving the billions of dollars and dictating where the money was going to go when a democratic administration came in under Mr. Cristiani, he said it was going to take millions just to correct the damage done by the United States assistance that was given by AID.”