Comments Of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee, On The Administration's Denial Of International Family Planning Funds Mon., July 22, 2002

[Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) chairs the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.  Leahy's panel allocated the $34 million for UNFPA in Fiscal Year 2002 which the Administration today announced that it will not release.  In the new Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2003, approved Thurs., July 18, by the Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy's panel included an earmark of $50 million for UNFPA and would require disbursement of the funds not later than 30 days after enactment.]

"Secretary of State Powell called me this afternoon to inform me of the decision on UNFPA.  The Secretary has been a strong supporter of UNFPA, and I do not hold him responsible for what is clearly a blatantly political decision by the White House.

"This decision is an embarrassment and a travesty.  It flies in the face of the facts, of the law and of the intent of Congress.  In calculated pursuit of the politics of abortion, the White House has chosen a course that will mean more abortions.  The House and Senate agreed to $34 million.  The President himself asked for $25 million.  The State Department's lawyers last February concluded that UNFPA was not in violation of Kemp-Kasten, and nothing has changed since then.

"The allegations against UNFPA by anti-family planning groups are also nothing new.  But the White House, feeling the political heat from its right wing, dispatched a team of experts to China.  After conducting an independent investigation, they recommended continued U.S. support to UNFPA.

"It is ludicrous that because there is coercion in China -- coercion we all know about and deplore -- the Administration is barring all U.S. support for use anywhere by the world's largest family planning organization, whose mission in China is to support voluntary family planning.  UNFPA's mission is to promote alternatives to coercion and abortion and to prevent the spread of AIDS, and that is exactly what UNFPA should be doing there.  We do not send foreign aid to countries that are doing everything right -- we send it to try to make things better.  That is also UNFPA's mission.

"Under existing law, no U.S. funds can be used in China.  UNFPA used our funds in scores of other countries that do not receive other U.S. family planning aid, which this decision now also eliminates."

# # # # #