Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

Ms. HIRONO. Mr. Chair, it is sad to see that amendments like this are being proposed based on no knowledge nor any serious evaluation of the institutions involved.

Anyone who has been involved with the East-West Center would understand that it is exactly the kind of activity that most cost-effectively promotes U.S. foreign policy and security interests in a critically important, fast-growing region of more than 3.5 billion people. Since its creation as a national institution 50 years ago, the Center has impacted more than 58,000 people in its region.

It operates our country's largest outreach program to Asia-Pacific region's journalists, the largest outreach program to the region's teachers, particularly in Muslim countries of Asia, and the only sustained U.S. program for engagement with the leaders of Pacific island nations. Both presidents Bush met Pacific island leaders through the East-West Center.

The Center is not a foreign aid program, but a public diplomacy program. The secret of the Center's effectiveness is that its programs bring together Americans with Asia-Pacific counterparts--American teachers with Asia and Pacific teachers, American youth leaders with their counterparts, etc. This is the very best way to show off American values and interests. If the U.S. had created a similar center for the Middle East, bringing young Israelis, Egyptians, and other Middle Easterners together with Americans for cooperative exchange and research at a location on American soil, our world may be a little different today. We would not see misguided amendments like that offered by Congressman Ron Paul that would eliminate funding for important allies like Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.

It is a hard to imagine a program that is more fiscally conservative. The cost is minimal compared to most government programs because the Center, because of its size, operates far more efficiently and flexibly and because, unlike government departments, it leverages significant amounts of non-appropriated sources for its national mission. This figure is 40 percent in last year's budget.

The Center originally was supported fully by the U.S. government and at much higher levels of appropriations during the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations. It has been repositioning itself as a public-private partnership. The amendment to zero out its funding would have a devastating impact on its ability to continue to increase private funding and leverage public funding. It also would have a devastating impact on U.S. public diplomacy in East, Southeast, and South Asia and the Pacific islands just at a time that other countries, especially China, are ramping up their public diplomacy programs in that region that is so important to our future.

Under the successful leadership of Charles Morrison, the East-West Center chaired the committee that developed the Hawaii hosting proposal for the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Summit.

The Center supports and leads the official APEC Pacific Economic Cooperation Council on behalf of the United States. It has provided essential research support for several APEC activities, including an assessment requested by the APEC Business Advisory Council of the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of Asia and the Pacific and studies in the area of energy security. I know that President Morrison and the East-West Center are integral to a successful U.S. hosting APEC year. This Congress needs to continue to support the East-West Center in these efforts.

Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much).

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