Bonior on IMF (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

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APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 3579, 1998 EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL 
APPROPRIATIONS ACT (House of Representatives - April 23, 1998)
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Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I share some of the concerns that have been expressed on this 
floor this evening. I would not be in this well today to support a bill that 
endorsed the status quo. This bill is about reform. This vote is about 
reform.

I want to commend the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Leach), the gentleman from 
New York (Mr. LaFalce), and the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, 
who in an overwhelming vote, 40 to 9, endorsed the first major revisions and 
reform of the International Monetary Fund.

They put for the first time in 50 years working men and women at the table. 
They put for the first time the concerns of our fragile Earth at the table. 
They did this in a responsible way. I would have liked more, but I think 
they did the right thing, and they moved things forward in a responsible 
way.

Mr. Speaker, this bill sets labor standards and environmental standards and 
accountability standards and transparency for the IMF in a way that we have 
never seen before. It will, Mr. Speaker, for the first time, allow people to 
assemble, to organize, to bargain collectively. It will take on sweatshops 
and child labor. It will do the things that we all talk about around here, 
but we have not been able to accomplish through these lending institutions.

So I say to my friends, this is a good bill. Not only will it do it, it will 
set up a watchdog group, including representatives from business, from 
labor, from agriculture, and from NGO groups to watch what they are doing 
and to report back to the public. It will require our Secretary of the 
Treasury to meet on a regular basis defined in the bill with different 
groups and issue a report card on how we are doing in these areas.

It is a good piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the 
motion to recommit, so we can begin the process of changing how we do 
business in this world. The world is a different place. These international 
organizations must reform to the reality of a different place. This bill 
helps do it.