Political Quotes

“Thank you. I would like to take another minute to ask the subcommittee chairman about section 572(a) of the bill, which makes funds available for certain environmental activities subject to the regular notification procedures of the committees. The language is quite broad, and it includes any activities promoting country participation in the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Again, I want to be clear about the purpose of this provision. It is my understanding that, like section 540(b), it was included due to concerns expressed by some senators that AID has not been sufficiently responsive to requests for information about the expenditure of certain funds for these activities. The information that was provided was very general and did not fully describe what the funds were used for. It is my understanding that this provision does not seek to prevent funding for these activities, but instead aims to ensure that when senators request AID to provide specific information about its use of these funds the information is provided in a timely way.”