The bill before us provides limited assistance to address the reality of 15 million children in the developing countries who will die of starvation or malnutrition related diseases this year without our help. During the course of the debate on this legislation. many people have spoken of the realities of budgetary constraints. There are. however. other realities in addition to the childrenthe reality that less than onesixth of the 2.1 billion people in the developing world are literate. that 85 percent of the population in the LDCs have inadequate. if any. health care and that wars and civil strfe have sent the worlds refugee population skyrocketing. We in the United States have a firsthand view of the problems caused by the massive influx of refugees. but compared to some other countries. we are fortunate. Yes. we are seriously burdened by refugees. but the burden is somewhat less devastating for us because we are one of the wealthiest nations in the world and we have a multitude of natural resources. our other problems notwithstanding. On the other hand. there are countries among the poorest of the poor. such as Somalia. which also bear the burden of hundreds of thousands of refugees. It is the poorest countries which this bill seeks. through our economic assistance programs. to aid. While the bill authorizes $5.5 billion. the overwhelming majority is for military assistance and the economic support fund.
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refugee refugees