David Obey: “this amendment restores the requirement that foreign countries agree to an outside audit as a condition of receiving FMF…”

“this amendment restores the requirement that foreign countries agree to an outside audit as a condition of receiving FMF grants. It has been included in the foreign operations bill for a number of years as a result of a number of notable bribery cases involving U.S. funds and foreign officials. It was not included in the bill by the committee apparently because the language is contained in another bill which passed the House and is pending in the Senate. But the problem is, we have absolutely no idea what the fate of that bill in the Senate will be, and this provision is too important to leave to the whim of the other body. It is a very simple proposition. It restores the proposition that if you get an FMF grant from the United States Treasury that you have to agree to accept an audit. It boggles my mind that we would risk losing that language. I would think we would want to nail this language into every single bill moving through this House that affects foreign aid. I can think of absolutely no constructive purpose that is served by the elimination of language which simply provides for an audit any time a country gets an FMF grant from the United States, and I would urge its adoption.”