Verbatim, as delivered

June 10, 2008

Remarks on the House floor by Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on his legislation H.R. 6028, authorizing the Merida Initiative

Madam Speaker, the drug crisis facing the United States remains a top national security threat.  The GAO states that 90 percent of illegal drugs entering our country transit the Central American-Mexican corridor. 

Drug gangs that operate in the United States, Mexico, and Central America are dangerously undermining the security environment for our neighbors to the South.  And the spillover effects on our own soil are undeniable.  

President Calderon of Mexico made a brave decision early in his presidency to fight illegal narcotics in a way that no Mexican government has done before.  And he and his countrymen have paid a high price for it. Drug cartels have been blamed for 6000 deaths in two and a half years in Mexico alone -- 4000 of them in the year and a half since Mr. Calderon assumed the Presidency.    

A significant percentage of these deaths are law enforcement personnel, outgunned and outspent from the proceeds of illegal drugs. There seems to be no limit to the brazenness of the drug gangs: A month ago, the Chief of Mexico’s federal police was shot dead in his own home. 

It’s high time for the United States to do more than applaud President Calderon’s courage.  We must work together to tackle this difficult problem. 

President Bush and President Calderon met in the Mexican city of Merida last year to craft a new and innovative proposal to confront this scourge. That proposal is largely reflected in the legislation we have before us today.

The central tenet of this bill is that while the violence must stop and security must be restored, the ultimate solution to this problem lies in respect for the rule of law and the strength of the institutions charged with upholding it.

H.R. 6028 represents the U.S. implementation of a new partnership with Mexico and Central American countries to face the immediate security threat of drug gangs, help these neighbors build the capacity of their law enforcement agencies, and enhance the rule of law in the region.  

As most of my colleagues know, the supplemental appropriations bill includes funding for Year One of the Merida Initiative.  But the legislation before us today authorizes the full three years of this plan in an exhaustive and complete manner necessary to undertake this critical partnership with our Southern neighbors.     

For example:

This legislation authorizes 1.6 billion dollars over three years in the areas of counter-narcotics, the fight against organized crime, law enforcement modernization, institution-building and rule of law support.  Mexico has requested that the U.S. provide certain high-tech equipment, and in this bill we authorize transport helicopters with night-operating capabilities, aerial and radar surveillance equipment, land and maritime interdiction equipment and secure communication networks. 

This legislation supports a variety of programs designed to enhance the transparency and capacity of civilian institutions at the federal, state and local levels.  They include assistance in courts management, prison reform, money-laundering capabilities, witness protection and police professionalization.   The latter emphasizes human rights and use-of-force training, as well as forensics and polygraph capabilities.  In the realm of prevention, the bill supports programs to increase school attendance and expansion of intervention programs.  It also seeks to promote development in areas where joblessness feeds the narcotics problem, including alternative livelihood and rural development efforts.

It concentrates considerable funding in the fragile Central American region, as well as in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in programs tailored to that region’s specific needs.  

The legislation contains significant human rights safeguards, as well as end-use monitoring provisions for equipment and training.  It provides no cash transfers. 

It calls on the President to devise standards up front that will be used to measure the success of the initiative, and to regularly report to Congress on progress made toward meeting these standards.

Significantly, because this was a specific request from our Mexican neighbors, the legislation bolsters by 73.5 million dollars America’s efforts to stem the illegal flow of arms going south by significantly expanding ATF’s Project Gun Runner. 

Finally, the bill establishes a coordinator in order to harmonize both responsibility and accountability for its wide-ranging programs. 

Perhaps most importantly, the legislation recognizes that the spread of illicit drugs through Mexico and Central America and into the United States, as well as the violence that accompanies it, cannot be halted without a comprehensive interdiction and security strategy planned and executed jointly with our southern neighbors. 

Madam Speaker, with this authorization of the Merida Initiative, we demonstrate our nation’s commitment to work closely with our friends and neighbors to the south, in a meaningful and long-term fashion, to battle illegal narcotics.  I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.