Directing the Secretary of the Interior to transmit to the House of Representatives certain information relating to the Secretary's Treasured Landscape Initiative, potential designation of National Monuments, and High Priority Land-Rationalization Efforts.

Would the gentlewoman yield?

I thank the ranking member for yielding.

I just want to add my support. The fact is I had a chance to go to Mexico City, and the gentlewoman from Arizona is absolutely right. The guns are one issue but the huge amounts of cash that are transported are another. Her amendment makes what I think are some good provisions in this legislation on strengthening the Merida Initiative even better, and I urge its adoption.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition to this amendment, although I am not opposed.

Madam Chair, as the gentleman said, and I agree with every word that he said in support of his amendment--I'm not sure I could have pronounced every word as he did, but this is simply a discretionary authorization to the Secretary of State, usually in extraordinary circumstances, to do something which makes perfect sense, to take advantage of the possibility that a foreign national might under circumstances, and particularly with a reward in mind, provide information of tremendous value in capturing target terrorists that we are pursuing. Whether it's the ones the gentleman spoke about or others, why not give this authority?

I urge that the amendment be adopted and we change the law to remove this restriction, which, to me, doesn't make much sense.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I rise to join the ranking member in supporting very strongly the amendment from the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch).

We have, I think, a general obligation to deal with the issue of the refugees as a consequence of these conflicts both in Iraq and in Afghanistan, but we have a particularly strong duty to deal with the status of people who are displaced or who are objects of persecution, retribution or retaliation because those individuals helped either our military or our diplomats or our AID people in terms of the conflict in either one of those countries.

This is an issue that I, personally, was very involved with in the last couple of years. The gentleman's amendment, I think, helps to spur us to deal with some of the problems in the program now and to do more in this regard. It is certainly an amendment that, if it is passed, I would want to see in the final legislation. I urge its adoption.

As the designee of Mr. Hill, I have an amendment made in

order by the rule, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am operating as a designee for our colleague Baron Hill. I strongly support the amendment that is before the body now. It requires the State Department, in cooperation with other departments and agencies, to report on how best to use government funds to reduce alien smuggling and trafficking in persons.

The State Department estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked in deplorable conditions and in inhumane conditions to cross borders around the world while millions more are trafficked within their own countries. Of these, approximately 80 percent are women and girls. Half are minors. Human smuggling continues to be a significant law enforcement challenge in the international community, and it remains a particular problem for us on our southern border with Mexico.

The United States became a party to the United Nations' smuggling protocol in 2005. It continues to work with other governments, committing substantial resources to end human smuggling and to protect victims from the perilous journeys involved in this profitable enterprise. Some 112 countries are now party to this smuggling protocol.

Madam Chair, in order to more effectively tackle the growing and worrisome problems of human smuggling and trafficking, I support the gentleman's amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I have no further requests for time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, as the designee of Mr. Teague, I have an amendment made in order by the rule, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Nevada (Ms. Titus).

Madam Chair, I yield the balance of the time to the sponsor of the amendment, under my designee status, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Teague).

Will the gentlelady yield?

I just want to express my strong support for this. The issue of child soldiers is a very important one. I appreciate your raising it, as well as some of the other contributions of other Members on this issue. I strongly support the resolution.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition to the amendment, though I'm not opposed to the amendment.

The gentleman's amendment is pretty direct. It requires the President to report total cash and in-kind contributions by the United States to the entire United Nations system for the period covered by H.R. 2410, fiscal years 2010 and 2011. The amendment makes sense. It encourages full transparency in detailing the logistical and other support that the U.S. provides to critical peacekeeping operations and other U.N. activities in the support of U.S. interests. The Members of Congress have a right to know, the people of America have a right to know, and I support the amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition, although I am not going to speak in opposition.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

The gentleman has touched on a real problem. Just as he describes it, the notion of criminal aliens released because of the limitations on the time they can be held, not taken in their home country, creates a very undesirable situation in our own country. The gentleman's addition to the existing law makes a lot of sense because it's to retaliate against the officials of that government who seek diplomatic visas to come to the United States.

The existing provision of law is very understandable, although I have a little concern that sometimes we're visiting on the spouse of a U.S. citizen or worker with particular skills the sins of the government on that individual or on that individual's American citizen family. But the gentleman has been very flexible in working with us on this amendment, and he is certainly trying to go after a real problem. I wish I had a better alternative than this, but military force isn't my answer. So I'm going to support the gentleman's amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman.

I have no further speakers. I support the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I object.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to strongly oppose the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, what we see in the offering of this motion to recommit is a political party or the leadership of a political party that, number one, is not serious about pursuing an effective strategy to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability and, two, that is using the pretext of Iran to strike every single provision of the bill that we have presented and that has been debated on.

The very first provision in this bill is to strike all that follows after the enacting clause. Then my friend from Indiana takes a bill that I am the sponsor of, along with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and a number of people on both sides--it now has something like 155 cosponsors--to focus on the issue of refined oil products going to Iran. He eviscerates that bill by taking out every single trade sanction and all of the financial institution sanctions, so it totally wipes out the State Department authorization bill. They know that we intend to pursue the policy of seeing if Iran diplomatically, in a short timeframe, can be dissuaded from the course they are now on. If they cannot be, at the same time, we are pursuing efforts to get key countries to come together at the Security Council with a level of, as the Secretary of State said, crippling sanctions on Iran to get that regime to change its behavior.

Will the gentleman let me finish my thought?

Then we will pursue these international sanctions in working with the Russians, the Chinese, the Arab States, and with all of the countries that know that Iran with a nuclear weapons capability is an intolerable situation that cannot be tolerated.

Instead, he jumps ahead to the third part of the strategy, a strategy on which we were going to have hearings in the month of July and see how both the multilateral sanctions and the engagement process--the diplomatic process--worked. Then, if we were not moving ahead, he would take a serious and tough bill that had import sanctions, which said that companies that provided refined oil products to Iran couldn't import, stripped from this bill; and that imposed even tougher financial sanctions that we now have stripped from this motion to recommit.

Meanwhile, all of the things in the State Department authorization bill--all of the issues that my friends praised even in the course of the debate on this bill, which they don't like, every single provision--is stripped.

This is not a serious effort. What really bothers me about this amendment is, with Iran, we should have a bipartisan approach. We tried a policy. I supported that policy of the previous administration: isolate and sanction unilaterally because we could never get effective multilateral sanctions. It didn't work. Iran kept enriching every day while we sat around, railing against them.

We are trying something new because we want this policy to work. We want to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapons capability. I don't know if the diplomatic strategy will work. You guys don't know if it will work.

I don't know if we can get the international community to do the kinds of things that can stop Iran and enforce the regime to change its behavior in this area or on the issue of terrorism or on all of the other issues that we have with Iran; but let's try a policy that's different than the one that has been a total failure for the past 5 years.

We said we won't engage until they suspend. They kept enriching. We said we'll sanction all we can. We caused some annoyances. Most of those sanctions didn't work because no other country was serious about it. Now we're trying a different approach to get the world serious about it. Give it a few months to try and work.

I urge that this eviscerated version of the bill that I am sponsoring in this motion to recommit be defeated and that you don't wipe out the whole State Department authorization bill and the committee's work.

I am not going to yield to you and am going to vote ``no'' emphatically on this thing. This is an irresponsible motion.

This politicizes a very important bipartisan issue.

Madam Chair, I rise to claim time in opposition.

The U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination and promote equality recognizes the commitment of our governments to promote equality and opportunity.

It also underscores the importance of cooperating in the promotion of human rights in order to maintain an environment of peace, of democracy, and of prosperity in the region.

The United States' commitment to freedom and equality is longstanding. This joint action plan between our two countries helps to further these values throughout the hemisphere.

Mr. Meeks' amendment requires the Secretary of State to report on the progress of these important bilateral efforts under the action plan. This report will help to bring accountability and greater oversight to the objectives and to the goals of this important joint effort between the United States and Brazil.

I thank Congressman Meeks for his introduction of this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I rise to claim the time in opposition.

Madam Chair, the Merida Initiative is an historic opportunity to cooperate with our democratic partners in the region against narcotrafficking and organized crime. Requiring comprehensive reporting on U.S. actions and the consequences of such are essential not only to ensuring oversight but also to ensuring our efforts are effective and, indeed, long lasting.

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick's amendment works to include a review of the illegal southbound flow of cash under Merida reporting. I believe we should also oversee north in addition to southbound flows of cash across our borders. Only through a comprehensive approach and understanding of what we are facing can we truly be successful.

I support the gentlewoman's amendment, and I congratulate her for offering it.

I would be most honored to yield to our distinguished chairman.

Madam Chair, I claim time in opposition.

I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for his helpful and constructive amendment.

I rise in support of this amendment.

I had the opportunity to travel to these areas with the gentleman a few years back. Congress has recognized the debt owed to the Iraqis and Afghans who work at great personal risk in support of our troops. It has responded by creating two Special Immigrant Visa, SIV, programs. One is an SIV program for Iraqi and Afghani translators and interpreters. The second is an SIV program for Iraqi employers and contractors and their families, along with providing refugee resettlement benefits.

However, as a 2008 report by the State Department Inspector General stated: the current process resulted in applicants' receiving SIVs who, one, did not meet the program's criteria of working primarily as interpreters or as translators or, two, in the OIG team's opinion, appeared to be outside the legislative intent of the program. As a result, the number of SIVs that could have been allocated to other qualified applicants were not.

This amendment seeks to address a number of those issues by requiring our State Department, among other actions, to develop clear guidance on eligibility for adjudicators, to maintain a high level of vigilance due to the high risk of fraud and abuse, and many other items.

I again thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. I urge my colleagues to support this vital and important amendment.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, although the amendment urges the executive branch to undertake assessments that, I hope, are already going into the administration's policymaking, I do not oppose this amendment.

All of us are, of course, opposed to alien smuggling, trafficking persons and terrorists entering the United States. We believe that U.S. efforts to fight those grave problems should be cost effective. Thus, I support the amendment's call for a report on this subject.

I yield back the balance of our time.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim time in opposition, even though I do not oppose the substance of the amendment.

Madam Chair, I support this amendment because the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was fully implemented in June of this year with the goal of strengthening U.S. border security while at the same time enhancing accountability of those entering our country.

By calling on the Secretary of State to provide a report to Congress describing the impact this implementation has had on the flow of people, goods, and services across the international borders shared by the relevant countries, Congressman Peters' amendment will help us understand better how effective this initiative has been in making our country safer and what impact these two measures will have on the business sectors of our countries.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative was a significant step toward

making America more secure. Congressman Peters' amendment is important as it would provide greater accountability and oversight of the objectives and consequences of this important initiative and will ultimately help us protect the interests and the safety of the American people.

And with that, I yield back.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim time in opposition even though I do not oppose the amendment.

Madam Chair, while I am concerned by the proliferation of exchange-related authorization earmarks in the underlying bill, which circumscribes the discretion of States' educational and cultural affairs bureaus in deciding how to allot our finite education and exchange resources, I do not oppose this amendment.

I support efforts to use our educational and exchange resources to help support the development of clean and efficient energy sources, and I appreciate the fact that this amendment does not include a specific authorization amount. Therefore, I support the amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to claim time in opposition, even though I do not oppose the amendment.

Madam Chair, I want to rise in support of the amendment offered by the gentlelady from Texas.

The women of Afghanistan have taken great strides since the fall of the Taliban to fully take part in all aspects of their society. Women have realized significant gains in the last several years. However, much remains to be done.

Laws and regulations passed to safeguard the rights of women must be enforced and respected at the provincial and local levels in order to ensure that women make progress throughout all aspects of Afghan society. It is critical that women legislators of Afghanistan receive the necessary training and support that they need to prevent a return to the intimidation, to the discrimination, to the violence that they faced under the Taliban.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I ask unanimous consent to claim time in opposition, even though I do not oppose the substance of the amendment.

Madam Chair, the Congress put the force of law behind its condemnation of the use of child soldiers through the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, authored by my good friend from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry). This was incorporated into the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and became public law in December 2008. We further opined on this matter in the Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008, which became law in October of last year. However, a sense of Congress reaffirming that the use of child soldiers is unacceptable must be supported. I applaud my good friend from Texas for bringing this important issue to our attention again. It is right and just to do so. I encourage our colleagues to support this amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chairwoman, let me first thank the Chair and ranking member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for their hard work on this entire document and for the privilege of offering this amendment.

I rise to claim the time in support of my amendment that would provide assistance for Afghan women legislators. The amendment would create a program in the State Department to support exchanges between Afghanistan and the United States for women legislators, expand Afghan women's participation in international exchange programs of the Department of State, and promote the advancement of women in the field of politics with the aim of encouraging more women to participate in the civil society. This program would give female lawmakers of the National Assembly of Afghanistan new opportunities to improve their political and administrative skills and to identify and mentor other future qualified women interested in leadership in the public service.

A new generation of leaders is helping to pave the way to consolidate and secure a stable democracy in Afghanistan. Afghan women legislators are helping to forge this path and already have contributed significantly to the country's democratic solutions. However, as a group, these women legislators face a unique challenge in navigating their path in the political system because of their agenda.

Additionally, many obstacles stand in the way of the advancement of the status of females, including violence against women and restriction on women's personal freedom of movement. Given the current challenges with the status of women and rising insecurity, the Afghan women legislators can greatly benefit from increased professional and leadership development. The U.S. and the international community must ensure that Afghan women can safely and effectively exercise their rights as citizens.

This amendment would also open additional possibilities to take part in an international visitors program and training through the State Department, which already maintains a similar program to encourage women in leadership in other countries. This would be paid out through the customary means for professional exchanges by the State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Taking part in such programs would not only train current legislators, but encourage more women to participate in Afghan civil society. Exchange programs such as these can help raise the awareness of democratic values. These goals are consistent with the national security objectives for Afghanistan and represent an effective use of our public diplomacy resources.

I urge all of my colleagues to support the benefits of international, cultural, and education exchange and to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chairwoman, let me begin by thanking Chairman Berman and Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen for all of their hard work and dedication to improving people's lives around the world.

My amendment affirms that the use of child soldiers is unacceptable. It is a violation of human rights, and the prevention and elimination of child soldiers should be a foreign policy goal of the United States. Around the world, children are being recruited by armed forces and exploited as soldiers. Amnesty International estimates 250,000 children under the age of 18 are thought to be currently fighting in conflicts around the world, and hundreds of thousands are members of armed forces who could be sent into conflict at any time. The use of children as soldiers has been universally condemned as horrible and unacceptable; yet over the last 10 years, hundreds of thousands of children have fought and died in conflicts around the world. Child soldiers are usually forced to live under cruel conditions with inadequate food and little to no access to health care. They're almost always treated cruelly, subjected to beatings and shameful treatment. Girl soldiers are particularly at risk of rape, sexual harassment and abuse while in combat. They're often forced into marriage arrangements and are at high risk for unwanted pregnancies.

As a psychiatric nurse, I have seen firsthand the effects of war. The mental, social, and emotional abuses endured as a child soldier will last the rest of their lives, and they'll never know how to solve a problem without fighting. I am eager to work with the State Department to ensure that children around the world are off the frontlines of conflicts and in schools and on playgrounds. Children must have a chance to be children in order to be healthy, happy and productive adults. We must take a stand. Please join me in expressing to the global community that the use of child soldiers is unacceptable. I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I have no further requests for time.

I yield to the gentleman from California.

Thank you very much.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment on the roll.

Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I want to thank Chairman Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for their bipartisan work on this, for a good underlying bill, in my view, as well.

This amendment will assist in our fight against terrorism across the globe, especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Currently, the terrorist rewards program run by the State Department assists in our hunt for terrorists by promising a cash reward or other type of assistance for information leading to the arrest of some of the world's most deadly terrorists. The Rewards for Justice Program, established by the 1984 Act to Combat International Terrorism, has now paid over $77 million to more than 50 people who have provided credible information to put terrorists behind bars and prevent acts of terrorism.

As a staff member, I helped write the amendments that President Clinton asked for when we wanted to offer rewards for persons indicted for war crimes, for example, in the former Yugoslavia. We also passed legislation under Chairman Hyde that loosened up this program so that we could provide more than cash assistance, more meaningful assistance to farmers and other people who may not be able to read in very rural parts of Central Asia.

The program has been the key to success in apprehending people, including Mir Amal Kansi, a terrorist who murdered two CIA employees and injured three others in his 1993 rampage outside of CIA headquarters in Virginia. The program was also important in nailing Ramzi Yousef, convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; Uday and Qusay Hussein, the two murderous Hussein brothers; Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, two high-ranking members of Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines; Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted on January 31, 2001, for the murder of 270 people on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie; Hamsiraji Marusi Sali, the leader of the ASG; Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, a member of Saddam Hussein's top Ba'ath Party leadership; Iraqi Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, a former official military commander; and Muhammad Zimam Abd al-Razzaq al-Sadun, number 41 on the Iraqi ``top 55'' wanted list.

Under current law, though, the United States may not pay an award to an officer or employee of another government. I have traveled to Pakistan in each of the last 4 years where I have met a number of government officials, and at the strong suggestion of the fairly poorly paid, especially IB, intelligence bureaus, I believe the Secretary of State should be allowed to pay such a reward especially if it has to do with nailing the greatest terrorists. If there is anyone anywhere working for anyone who has information related to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri, we should be doing everything possible to elicit that information.

As Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, General Petraeus, and Ambassador Holbrooke execute the President's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, we should do everything we can to develop a complete picture of where the al Qaeda and Taliban leadership is hiding. This amendment provides our key State Department and intelligence officials with every possible tool that they could have to make sure they can offer a reward even if that person, for example, works for the Pakistani IB bureau.

In the last Congress, the House overwhelmingly passed this amendment 419-1, but it did not pass the Senate, which is why I offer it today.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

I appreciate the chairman's work. I also appreciate David Fite's work on this because we were together when we first saw how this restriction could impede the hunt for the two top al Qaeda terrorists-- Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.

For a poorly paid official--and there are many who are patriotic, good servants in Afghanistan and in Pakistan especially--we ought to be able to offer this reward. This will significantly incentivize the hunt for some of the people who have killed most of the Americans. I urge adoption of the amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I rise today with an important amendment to H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011.

We here in the United States understand all too well that it takes more than just passing laws to ensure equal access to prosperity. It took decades of constant pressure and struggle to get the legal right to full participation of African Americans in our American democracy, yet we realize that our work is far from over in our great Nation.

Racial discrimination is a sobering reality, both here in the United States and in the rest of the world. We understand that we cannot throw stones from a glass house, but instead we must work in tandem with our neighbors to ensure that all citizens in our hemisphere are unfettered by discriminatory practices now and the vestiges of those practices of the past.

It is in our interest to work toward a more equal hemisphere. And we are all at risk if our citizens do not have full faith in the strength of democracy to provide upward mobility. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., put it best when he said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Afro-Latinos face a longstanding struggle against racial discrimination and a lack of opportunities. Afro-Latinos make up approximately 150 million of the region's 540 million total population and, along with women and indigenous populations, are among the poorest, most marginalized groups in the region.

People of African descent comprise a significant portion of the population in several Latin American countries and account for nearly 50 percent of the region's poor. For many Afro descendants, endemic poverty is exacerbated by isolation, exclusion, and racial discrimination.

In Brazil, Afro-Latinos represent 45 percent of the population but constitute 64 percent of the poor and 69 percent of the extremely poor. In Colombia, the plight of Afro-Colombians is perhaps harshest, as they are all too often caught in the crossfire of violent conflict.

Congress previously supported the United States-Brazil Joint Action Plan Against Racial Discrimination in House Resolution 1254 and called for both the United States and Brazil to promote equality and to continue to work toward eliminating racial discrimination. The joint action plan helps to facilitate the exchange of information on the best practices of antidiscrimination measures and development of ideas of how to bilaterally promote racial and ethnic equality.

With this amendment, we request that Secretary Clinton report on plans and efforts to address the plight of Afro-Latinos and indigenous peoples in the Western hemisphere. And we also request a report on the status of the U.S.-Brazil joint action plan so we can gain a greater understanding of how to

increase our collaboration on similar initiatives.

Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott).

Madam Chair, I just want to give some good progress that has been made in Latin America. For example, we see Graciela Dixon become the first black woman to head Panama's Supreme Court in 2005 and Joaquim Barbosa of Brazil rise as a prominent member of the Supreme Court. Paula Moreno stands now as Colombia's first Afro- Colombian to serve as a minister in a presidential cabinet. And in Ecuador, it was reported that a group of more than 100 black women in 2006 sought more government assistance for housing to combat racial discrimination in the rental market.

We are in this together; we can accomplish this together. And I thank the gentlewoman who is the ranking member on the committee for supporting this bill as well as the Chair of the committee.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.