On the recordMarch 19, 1998
As has been noted by the previous two speakers, this is really the outgrowth of years of work by a lot of people that links two important facts of life: One is that, very important, tropical forests are disappearing at an extremely rapid rate; and, second, they happen to be located in less developed countries that have a hard time repaying their debts to the United States. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman), the chairman, and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hamilton) will go further into the bill and what it does more precisely, but I want to take a minute to focus on why this bill makes so much sense to the American taxpayer. Tropical forests literally impact the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the medicines that cure disease.
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