David Obey: “I cannot think of a worse signal to send the entire continent of Africa than to pass the Burton amendment pending here…”

“I cannot think of a worse signal to send the entire continent of Africa than to pass the Burton amendment pending here tonight. That amendment will gut the planned aid program to South Africa. The South African aid program has been planned since the election at $140 million. But because the fiscal year is more than half over before the new program level had been planned, the annual spending level in fiscal 1994 will be only $80 million. That means that despite the fact that the effective program level for the remainder of this year will be at about $140 million, the Burton amendment, in fact, would require us to cut it back to $80 million on an annualized basis next year. That would do immense damage in South Africa and it would do immense damage to American business interests. I say that because at this point, the Export Import Bank and OPIC are expending no dollars in this fiscal year for export guarantees to South Africa. But the Export Import Bank is planning to finance at least $400 million in U.S. aircraft sales and other business sales next year.”