Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and today I rise in strong support of the 2007 foreign operations appropriations bill.
I want to acknowledge the fine work done by the chairman, Mr. Kolbe, who I had the honor to travel to Indonesia with as part of the House Democracy Assistance Commission and also the superb work done each and every day by our ranking member, Nita Lowey. We are very grateful for your fine work.
There is a lot to applaud in this bill, and I want to recognize a couple of areas worthy of specific mention, funding in Darfur and funding for the state of Israel among others; but before I do, I want to express my regret and concern about the fact that this bill is still $2.38 billion below the President's request. That significant cut in foreign assistance, given all the problems around the world, should be concern to all of us. Some of the areas of particular significance that have been cut: refugee assistance is being reduced; debt relief is being cut; peacekeeping is being reduced. The Peace Corps funding is being reduced. Funding for democratization efforts in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union countries is being reduced. Global environmental facility funding and economic support funds, all those are being reduced from the President's proposed budget at a cumulative cost in cuts in those areas and others of $2.3 billion; and that is, I think, a considerable concern.
In other areas, I want to acknowledge and applaud the work that we are doing in Darfur and the Sudan. More needs to be done. At least 300,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur in what has remained a largely neglected tragedy and genocide. Currently, more than 3.5 million Darfurians depend on international aid for survival. Another 2 million have been driven from their homes. The $450 million in humanitarian relief efforts to the Sudan provided in this bill will help meet this rapidly growing need and lend credibility to American calls for other countries to follow our example.
I also applaud the legislation for the groundwork it does for vital improvements in global health and AIDS funding which also are very significant.
Again, I congratulate our Chair and our ranking member for their superb efforts.