Mark Souder: “I want to first say, as the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] said, that I believe there is a role for international…”

“I want to first say, as the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Wolf] said, that I believe there is a role for international family planning, and as we look around the world we can see that need. I strongly have concerns about the fungibility and the maneuverability of funds not only directly but indirectly from fund- raising concerns on abortion, and I have a deep heartfelt concern that American dollars should not be used to kill innocent little children around the world. But also this bill is based on a false premise, and those Members and the general public who are still trying to make up their minds on this bill should realize that Congress has been very generous to international population programs. Let us get some of the facts straight. The amount the administration already has to spend in fiscal year 1997 in international population programs, even if this resolution does not pass, is over $400 million. Not $1 million, not $10 million, not $100 million, not $200 million, over $400 million. This is about 25 percent of the entire U.S. budget for developmental assistance to poor countries around the world. It is substantially more than the $300 million we spend on child survival programs which pay for vaccinations and medicines and save hundreds of thousands of children from dying from easily treatable diseases. The money we spend on international population control is about twice as much as the $200 million we spend on assistance for narcotics control.”