The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 21, 2007)

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment, which seeks to send five times the current level of funding to so-called democracy assistance programs for Cuba. Five times the amount of money to programs that are not transparent; smack of cronyism; are noncompetitive; and, frankly speaking, foolish, corrupt, and just plain embarrassing for the United States.

How bad is this program? So bad that Cuba's courageous Catholic Church refuses to work with it. Many dissidents have told me that they think that this program is a bad idea. For Cuban opposition leaders to take money from the U.S. Government subjects them to the charge that they are somehow U.S. agents. That is not the way to p romote democracy.

I support the committee bill, which keeps funding level at $9 million. It is the smart thing to do until problems outlined in the November GAO report have been addressed and the program redesigned and better managed so that it might have at least some chance of being effective.

Mr. Chairman, everyone in this House supports the work of Cuba's dissident and pro-democracy community. But we do not need to squander five times more money on leather coats, cashmere sweaters, Game Boys, cr abmeat, and Godiva chocolates purchased by groups pretending to support them.

What do Godiva chocolates have to do with promoting democracy in Cuba? Come on, give me a break.

The American people want accountability, and I hope a majority in this Congress will too. Vote ``no'' on this amendment.

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Mr. McGOVERN. And not only listen to the dissidents, but listen to the courageous Catholic Church in Cuba, which refuses to participate in this program.

We have had a policy for 50 years that has failed, it has been a failure. This is a continuation of the same old, same old. But even if you want to go down that road, the reason why you should oppose this amendment is because this program has been plagued with corruption and cronyism. We have used taxpayer moneys to buy Godiva chocolates and cashmere sweaters. I mean, come on. That is not a way to support dissidents. That is not a way to support the struggling democratic movement in Cuba. This program has been mismanaged. It is up to the Members of this Congress to make sure we do the proper oversight to make sure that we're not wasting taxpayers' money.

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