Steve Israel: “I rise to question the omission of an amendment sponsored by Mrs. Maloney, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Crowley and myself, which…”

“I rise to question the omission of an amendment sponsored by Mrs. Maloney, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Crowley and myself, which was agreed to by the Chairman of Appropriations. The amendment took $3 million from the ``Economic Support Fund'' and put it toward the ``Tsunami Recovery and Reconstruction Fund,'' for the express purpose of the providing the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA with these funds. This past January, I toured the region that was overwhelmed by the tsunami. The extent of the destruction was massive, and I was glad to see the world contributing to relief efforts. However, I was concerned that the special needs of women were not being adequately addressed. I visited the remains of a three-story maternity hospital. There were 300 women and infants in that hospital when the first wave hit. The tsunami toppled a cement wall, flattened utility polls, and shattered all of the glass windows in the front of the building. Of the 300 women and their babies, all but one, a newborn, were saved from the crashing waves. I met a doctor who finished a C-Section in absolute darkness, after the generators were underwater, as the rest of the building was evacuated. The hospital was practically destroyed. The beds were pushed and piled against each other by the flooding, and shards of glass crunched under our feet. The sheets were strewn about like wet rags, and saturated packages of medicine were thrown in useless piles.…”