all of the poor countries of the world. and i thank daniel and other professional staff persons with the financial services committee. haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake on january 12, 2010. according to the u.s. agency for international development, 230,000 people were killed and 1.3 million people were displaced from their homes. there is a desperate need for clean water, food, shelter and sanitation. three million people, 1/3 of the population were affected. today, we are fortunate to have in this country the president of haiti, president preval. c.b.c. has been meeting with the president and he thanked us all, not only the members of the congressional black caucus but the american people, for the aid we have provided to haiti and

thanked all the american agencies for the lives they have saved and the food they have distributed, along with the water and medical care and much more. he reminded that the rains and hurricanes are perhaps coming and there are needs for shelter and long-term housing. we are talking about the one of the most important things to do and that is to cancel its debts. haiti's democratic government has worked in recent years to qualify for debt relief. in order to qualify, the government of haiti implemented a comprehensive strategy paper under the direction of the international monetary fund and world bank. as a result, multilateral financial institutions provided $1.2 billion debt relief last year. this was a critical step. haiti has a significant debt burden that will interfere with

recovery and development efforts unless the remaining debts are canceled. according to the u.s. treasury department, haiti owes $828 million to the multilateral development institutions, $477 million to the international development. $39 million to the world group bank and $58 million to the international fund for agricultural development. haiti owes -- haiti owes -- i introduced this bill to free haiti from the burden of these debts. it instructs the directors at the multilateral institutions to use the voice, vote and influence of the united states to cancel the debt owed by haiti to these institutions until such time as the debts

are canceled on the provision of emergency, humanitarian and other help to haiti in the form of grants so they do not accumulate further debt. this bill directs the secretary of the treasury and secretary of state to use all diplomatic influence to secure all multilateral and other debt owed by haiti this will allow the government of haiti to focus its meager resources on the essentials. the people of haiti are poor but spiritually resilient. i know they will recover from this tragedy and create a brighter future for their children. i urge my colleagues to support the debt relief for earthquake recovery in haiti. this bill, 20 10. -- this bill, in 2010. >> the gentleman from california is recognized.

>> i rise in support of this bill, the debt relief in haiti act of 2010. representative meeks and waters wasted in time in helping the haitian people. the haitian people are fortunate to have them on their side and i want to applaud them for their efforts in this act. on january 12, 2010, haiti experienced a a magnitude 7.0 earthquake near the capital, port-au-prince. there were aftershocks occurring within 24 hours. as of now, the haitian government estimated 230,000 deaths and 230,000 injured. damage caused by the earthquake is estimated to be between $8 billion and $14 billion with an estimate that reconstruction costs could reach $14 billion.

as the people of haiti strive to put their lives and the life of the country back together, congress needs to help this would have -- would instruct the directors at multilateral institutions to use their influence at these institutions to reach an agreement on relieving haitian debts to these entities and to suspend their debt service payment until the debt is is canceled. additionally, they would advocate that future aid provided to haitians to be grant-based to avoid putting the country immediately back into debt as they rebuild. this is an important first step but i think the body must consider how much more can be done. so often, aid comes in the form of a check which provides significant boost bus the goal is to mitigate the disaster of the impact on the people. in addition to feeding the people and providing shelter and medical care, we can

leverage american resources if they aren't simply sending a check esm americans are the most generous people in the world, in the aftermath of the tragedy, the citizens have raised tens of millions of dollars to help the haitian people. we should also be looking to send heavy machinery and qualified american workers, many of whom have been out of work themselves to assist the haitian people rebuild their nation quickly and effectively. we'll be holding a hearing in the financial services committee and i look forward to working with my colleagues on ways we can further leverage our country's resources. i want to thank congressman -- -- representatives waters and meeks for introducing this. i strongly urge support of this bill and yield back my -- and i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: it's my honor to yield one minute to the chair of the financial services

committee, the gentleman from massachusetts, the honorable barney frank. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. frank: i hope people will take note that there is not a correlation between the importance of what we do and the attention that what we do gets. this is not controversial because it is a product of genuine cooperation. i'm delighted to be on the floor with my friend, mr. bachus. a few years ago with him and the gentleman from california we frankly beat the leaderships of both parties in the clinton administration to get debt relief through. they've learned so we don't have to fight so hard this time for an important cause. i am pleased to be joining in this wholly cooperative way in a response to the haiti people. i join in thanking the gentleman from california, the gentleman from new york, my colleagues on the other side for bringing this forward and various members of the staffs

have been congratulated as they should be. it's not as easy to do the right thing as it sometimes seems. i want to single out daniel who has been working on this for a long time in cooperation with others. this is a day the house can be proud, even if, because we're not yelling at each other, the press won't notice. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from -- >> i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york. mr. meeks: it's now my honor to call on the chairwoman of the congressional black caucus, a longtime fighter for haiti, the honorable barbara lee. for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized.

gentleman from new york, would you -- mr. meeks: i would -- the speaker pro tempore: here's the gentlelady. the gentlelady from california is recognized for two minutes. ms. lee: thank you very much, madam speaker. thank you very much, chairman meeks. let me just first say how much i want to support this bill today and thank chairman meeks for his steady and consistent support for haiti and also chairman frank. also, just let me say, chair of the congressional black caucus, i have to extend our thanks to congresswoman maxine waters for her work on this bipartisan resolution, especially also for her long-term leadership on the campaign for debt relief for haiti and for all countries in the developing world. congresswoman waters has been a

friend and ally of the haitian people for many year, long before this devastating earthquake struck. also to the ranking members, your support and your sense of justice for haiti is deeply appreciated. the congressional black caucus has a long history of working with the haitian and haitian-american communities and many of us have traveled to haiti several times. during the current crisis, the congressional black caucus has and will continue to work closely with the obama administration, the government of haiti and nongovernmental organizations to provide whatever assistance we can on an ongoing basis to help with the recovery and reconstruction efforts. debt relief is not a matter of charity. it is really a matter of economic justice. over half of haiti's debts were borrowed under haiti's dictatorship, some of which were brutally repressive. thus moneys borrowed by these regimes should not be borne by

the haitian people who had no say in how these moneys were spent. more to the point, i think it's obvious haiti is not in a position to service debt, nor should it be, while it's struggling to meet the basic needs of its people like food, water, health care and shelter. it's looking to rebuild from the most devastating tragedy to strike the island nation in its history. i know that the leaders of the international financial institutions feel the same way and they understand this bill and that haiti should not have to repay its debt. the united states government and other donor nations must work with these institutions to fashion a plan forward this bill offered by congresswoman waters offers a legal framework and mandate to do just that. finally, let me just say, congresswoman waters mentioned that we met with president preval today -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time is expired. ms. lee: thank you again, i hope this bill passes on a bipartisan basis, thank you again. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from california is recognized. >> am i direct that we have seven minutes remaining. the speaker pro tempore: that's correct. >> i would be happy to yield four minutes of our time to you. i yield one minute at this point in time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> i speak for my good -- i spoke with my good friends to help employee american workers in haiti. we're going to be giving and other groups are giving tremendous amounts of money to haitians and to the haitian government to basically rebuild and we all believe that it's important work the amount of american workers, especially construction industries, that we have unemployed, to utilize many of our dollars to send the expertise and skill we was in contractors and workers in laborers to work with the labor in the haitian people tond to the rebuild their country. i want to commend my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for working with me on this. we are close to having legislation done. ms. waters i spoke to you

today, we will be getting that to all of you to introduce, hopefully we bring it up in committee in a couple of weeks to start implementing american manpower and resources and to benefit those americans who are out of work. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: how much time do we have? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 7 1/2 minutes remaining. that is not including your four minutes. we need unanimous consent to accept your minutes. >> without objection. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california -- does the gentleman from california ask unanimous consent? >> i'd be happy to yield four of our minutes which would give us two minutes remaining is that correct? the speaker pro tempore: that's

correct. mr. miller: i ask unanimous consent to do that. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from new york is recognized. you have 11 1/2 minutes. mr. meeks: thank you. it's my pleasure to yield a minute and a half of that to the gentlelady from the great state of florida, the honorable corrine brown. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized for one and a half minutes. ms. brown: thank you, mr. chairman. i stand in strong support of debt relief act for the earthquake recovery for haiti act, introduced by my dear friend and colleague, representative maxine waters like so many of my colleagues here in the congress and the c.b.c., we have been working to improve the lives of the people of haiti for many, many years. i was in haiti last october with chairman oberstar and congressman gregory meeks and we met with president preval and members of the haitian cabinet to discuss ways to improve the nation's infrastructure system which is absolutely vital to haiti's

future scommick development. haiti is an island filled with good-willed, hardworking people yet their lives are extraordinarily difficult buzz their country has been in great turmoil for decades. long before the earthquake that hit port-au-prince. being from florida, haiti has always been near and dear to my heart. in my congressional district of florida, we worked with new mexico russ area churches, businesses, nonprofit organizations to make about 16 donations of tractor trailers filled with supply for the haitian people. this was truly -- we worked with nontroft organizations and it was trmented by royal caribbean cruise lines, all at no cost to the people of haiti. you know, because haiti is not on the front pages of the paper, their need is very important and we need to continue to work to help the people of haiti and i want to

thank my colleagues for doing that and this is a wonderful first step. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields. the gentleman from california is recognized. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: i'd like to yield a minute and a half the great gentlemen from the state of new york, one who comes from the caribbean, the honorable ms. clarke. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is roused for 1 1/2 minutes. ms. clarke: thank you, madam speaker. i rise in support of h.r. 4573, the designee for earthquake recovery in haiti act. i'd like to acknowledge the tremendous leadership of the gentleman from new york, mr. meeks, and the gentlelady from california, ms. waters, the author of this legislation. as representative of the second largest haitian population in the country, i commend the obama administration's swift response to the haitian crisis.

without the president's comprehensive relief campaign which included food, water, medical and military assistance as well as the $100 million in aid, we would not be at the point where we are, ready to discuss the next step. and thankfully we are. we must remember that the january earthquake did not create the troubling conditions in haiti, although it certainly exacerbated them. haiti is already the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. this -- h.r. 4573, the relief for earthquake recovery in haiti act will achieve three distinct goals that will keep the focus on humanitarian assistance. first the secretary of the treasury would instruct the u.s. executive directors of the institutions that lent money to haiti government to immediately cancel all debts owed to haiti to their respective institution. next, haiti death service payments would be suspended and, lastly, grants would be provided for additional assistance so

that haiti does not accumulate additional debt. it is my hope that as we continue to rebuild, our rebuilding effort will not begin until the relief effort has concluded. and it is dependent on all allowing haiti to focus solely on humanitarian aid. to do this, it is imperative that we count on the haitian government and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: i'd like to recognize the gentleman from the great state of texas, the hardworking, the honorable al green, for a minute and a half. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. green: thank you. i want to thank the team that worked on this effort. of course, that would be the honorable chair of the u.n. is committee -- subcommittee, mr. meeks -- the honorable chair of the subcommittee, mr. meeks, and the honorable maxine waters and it would be mr. miller, the ranking member on the

subcommittee, and of course the ranking member of the full committee, mr. bachus. and i must tell that you my comments have been revived -- revised because i cannot allow this moment to go by and not comment on the comments that were made by mr. bachus. he spoke to our hearts and he spoke truth. it's not easy to stand in the well of the house of representatives and speak the kind of truth that we heard. a son of the south, representative from alabama, stood in the well of the house and spoke the truth about one of the greatest atrocities ever imposed upon humankind and how one country in an effort to extricate itself and liberate itself had to pay for the very

liberation that it accorded itself, it meant something to me to hear this son of the south speak this kind of truth in the well of the congress of the united states of america. so i commend you and i salute you and, mr. miller, i thank you as well, the two of you deserve to have it said that you truly spoke truth to power tonight. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: i yield to the ranking member of the committee, mr. bachus. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from alabama is recognized. mr. bachus: i would like unanimous consent for an additional minute on each side and then to yield our one-minute to the majority so that -- unanimous consent request.

the speaker pro tempore: is there an objection to adding an additional minute to each side? without objection, so ordered. mr. meeks: i thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: so, without objection, -- mr. bachus: madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to yield our one minute. the speaker pro tempore: thank you. without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: i'd now like to recognize for a minute and a half the gentlelady from the great state of texas, sheila jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. ms. jackson lee: this is a very historic occasion and i'd like to as well thank congresswoman waters for the continued and persistent leadership on debt relief for countries around the world. i thank the chairman of the subcommittee, mr. meeks of new york, and his persistence and

guidance on passing this bill so quickly, mr. bachus and mr. miller, thank you for your commitment and your interesting and very good idea about putting americans to work. i rise today to support this legislation, to acknowledge that we're talking about a country right now that has 20%, only 20% of the revenue that it needs to rub its nation. they need seed, they -- run its nation. they need seed, they need fert lieser. they're living some -- fertilizer. they're living some 80% below poverty owing some $109 million in debt to multilateral institutions, $474 million to the inter-american development bank and to countries such as venezuela. this legislation will in essence help us clear the slate of all of those debts and track what the united states has done. and i'd like to take this time to thank all of the first responders and you said and so many -- usaid and so many that stood tall when haiti called. today in the white house it was good to be able to acknowledge those first responders from

around the world, around the nation, in addition to united states military. helping them with this debt relief over all the land will allow the president to focus on building and rebuilding, rebuilding port-au-prince, rebuilding the suburbs and the outer areas and create jobs for the haitian people, to bring contractors there that will work with haitians and joint venture with haitians. so the relief of this debt, i believe, is an enormous step to making a difference in the lives of haitians. i want to thank you and ask the board of this -- and ask support of this legislation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california recognize -- is recognized. mr. miller: continue to reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: it's my honor to give two minutes to the chairperson of the subcommittee on foreign affairs committee, a long-time fighter for haiti, the honorable donald payne from new jersey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for two minutes. mr. payne: unanimous consent to address the house for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without

objection. mr. payne: thank you. let me begin by commending mr. meeks from new york and ms. waters from california for this very important legislation, h.r. 4573, debt relief for earthquake recovery in haiti and also i'd like to acknowledge mr. bachus for his very impassionate speech, but i'm not surprised because when mr. bachus, you may recall, we were fighting the brutal government of sudan, we tried to get capital market sanctions and you supported our legislation that brought mr. greenspan to the senate to say, defeat the payne-bachus legislation because it would disrupt the stock market. you may recall. so i commend you again for the great work that you've done. as we've mentioned, haiti has such a tremendous history and i might just, since we know what's in the bill, also mention that it was during the revolutionary war that haitian soldiers fought in one of the key battles, the battle of savannah, where just

recently a statue was completed in savannah, and i spoke at the dedication a year or so ago. it turned the tide of the war and haitian soldiers fought in a number of battles to help the original colonies of the united states become independent from britain. so they shed blood for our independence, many people not knowing that, and then as you know the defeat of napoleon's army by haiti as was talked about, the reparations that had to be paid back caused france to be cash poor and land rich and therefore forced them to settle -- sell the louisiana territory to the united states because it had lost the cash that haiti produced, over 50% of all the commodities of tea and coffee and sugar in europe came from haiti and france lost that and therefore needed the cash from

the louisiana sale to havity treasury boosted and -- have its treasury boost the and as a result the expedition began i st. louis and the united states was able then to take the rest of this nation, once again haiti had a tremendous part of this wealth. i guess i will have to yield back the balance of my time. thank you, mr. chair. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. meeks: it is my honor to recognize the chair of the subcommittee for the western hemisphere, the gentleman from new york, the honorable eliot engel, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. engel: i thank my good friend and fellow new yorker for yielding to me. i want to commend him for the

work he's done and i want to commend my friend and colleague, the gentlewoman from california, ms. waters, for this bill and i rise like all my colleagues in strong support of h.r. 4573 which pushes for the cancellation of debts owed by haiti to multilateral financial institutions. i'm the chairman of the western hemisphere subcommittee and i also have a large haitian population in my district in spring valley, new york, and i am honored to say that last friday i traveled to haiti and you can see the devastation in the newspapers, you can look at it on television, but until you're there in person you cannot imagine how horrible it is. and the other thing you see are thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people in the streets with nothing to do, no place to go, no place to go to work, no place to call home, tense and -- tents and tents and rows of tents and shacks and things put up for people to seek the shelter and people just in the streets. and friendly toward the united states. and we have a special obligation to help the people of haiti. we met president per value in

port-au-prince -- perval in port-au-prince and today i had the pleasure of meeting him twice, once at the white house with president obama and after that a meing -- a private meeting with members of congress and -- a private meeting with members of congress. i will tell what all my colleagues are saying, that we must help haiti. we have a responsibility to help haiti. it's clear that haiti faces a very long road of recovery from the impact of the earthquake and this bill will allow the government of haiti to focus its efforts and attention on the present and future recovery of the country and the haitian people. we all know haiti's early history and its tragically marked by the onerous debts it was forced to pay by powers, depriving haiti of many years of needed resources and development and we shouldn't allow haiti's present debts to pose similar obstacles in the wake of this earthquake. so i am -- people say that congress can't agree on anything and there's no bipartisan here. what we're seeing -- bipartisanship here. what we're seeing now is

bipartisanship at its best. we're working together to help the people of haiti. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: yes, are you prepared to close on your side? i will for my side if are you. mr. meeks: yes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. miller: my daughter lived with me here in washington for about four years and she was a director for witness for peace, a human rights organization, and i recall very well a trip she led to a group in haiti. and she spent a week in haiti with individuals from the united states looking at the situation that people were in and trying to come up with ways that we could help the people of that country. and my daughter passed away about two years ago and i'm proud to be part of this bill because she believed in this, she believed in the people and she believed that there was a lot of good that the american people could do for people in this part of the world. and so i'm just glad to chair this side of the hearing