I still have very grave concerns about the very disturbing pattern and practice that is emerging with respect to the African foreign aid account. This is the second time this year that the administration has attempted to raid the meager African aid budget to give money to other regions of the world. Just this past September. the State Department proposed that $10 million in funds earmarked for Somalia be reprogrammed for use in the resettlement of ethnic Turkish refugees who had fled Bulgaria. The situation in Turkey may. indeed. have merited the immediate attention of our Government. but Turkey alone already receives more U.S. financial assistance than all of the countries of Africa together. It was a travesty for the administration to look to the paltry foreign aid appropriations for Africa to find those funds for Turkey. There were tremendous unmet needs for those funds for refugees on the African continent. All of us have seen the pictures of starvation in the Horn of Africaa cause for which our colleague. Mickey Leland. gave his life. Africa is. after all. home to the worlds largest refugee population. And that is. precisely. why the Congress had earmarked those funds for Africa and why members objected so strongly to the reprogramming. Fortunately. faced with our adamant congressional opposition. the administration decided to look elsewhere for funds for Turkish refugees. Now. we are told that we have no choice but to tranfer $30 million in aid from Africa to Panama. The administration claims to be unable to find the funds needed for Panama anyplace except in the minuscule amount of aid we give to Africa.
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refugee refugees