Andy Harris: “I vigorously support the amendment of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe). We share one central concern, and that is…”

“I vigorously support the amendment of the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe). We share one central concern, and that is by limiting the MCA's authority to assist lower middle income countries to a 20 percent cap in the final year of authorization, we undermine the very foundation of President Bush's visionary initiative. Further, basing a country's eligibility for assistance on per capita national income ignores the key reality that in Latin America large subregions labor under tremendous disparity in income. The income of many of these subregions remains far below the income of many of the nations targeted for assistance under the MCA. Chairman Hyde's original draft of this bill included a provision that permitted MCA to consider subregions in determining eligibility. Further, by giving per capita national income levels disproportionate weight, the proponents of this amendment unintentionally penalize the nations that are pursuing the very reforms MCA seeks to promote. We will not find more eager, receptive partners for MCA than our friends and neighbors in the Western Hemisphere. We must stand with them side by side particularly as they confront the poisonous rhetoric that entices them to jettison the extraordinary democratic progress that they have made during this last decade. Absent this amendment, few nations in the Americas may qualify for MCA.”