Motion To Instruct Conferees On H.R. 2346, Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009

Floor Speech

Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, I voted against the motion. One of my concerns about the Supplemental as passed by the Senate is the fact that it contains funding for the International Monetary Fund without language designed to ensure that the IMF provide no assistance to countries that support terrorism, raise proliferation concerns, or are major human rights abusers, most notably Iran. Proponents of the motion mentioned their objections to the IMF funding; some raised similar concerns that the IMF could assist some of the worst regimes. However, a close reading of the motion reveals that conferees could implement the instructions without any cut to IMF funding and without adding any preconditions that the IMF would have to meet before obtaining $109 billion. Given the political realities, I believe that this is the direction the conferees would take to implement these instructions in the event they did not ignore them altogether. Thus this motion does not instruct conferees to do anything at all to IMF funding and, if implemented will lead to cuts to worthy domestic and international accounts. For these reasons, I could not support the motion.

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