This allocation of $10 million is for war disaster relief assistance in Lebanon. As a result of the recent conflict there 10,000 people have been killed, 20,000 hurt or wounded, and 40,000 rendered homeless. An estimated one-half million persons in Lebanon are in need of some kind of assistance, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Thus far the United States has provided only $900,000 in medical supplies. A number of bills have been introduced into Congress providing for relief aid to Lebanon. Because of the current political situation in Lebanon, the administration has not yet made its own request for funds, but such a request is expected to be forthcoming in the near future."

1 Amount contained in legislation reported by the House International Relations Committee on Mar. 2, 1976.

COMMITTEE COMMENT

The Atlantic Convention would be a convention of delegates from the North Atlantic Treaty parliamentary democracies, and other parliamentary democracies the convention may invite, to explore the possibility of agreement on a declaration that it is the goal of their peoples to transform their present relationship into a more effective unity based on federal or other democratic principles.

PRESIDENT'S BUDGET REQUESTS FOR EXISTING PROGRAMS WHICH DO NOT REQUIRE AUTHORIZING LEGISLATION FOR FISCAL YEAR

This item represents repayments of credits extended under the foreign military sales program.

The President, under sections 22 and 23 of the Foreign Military Sales Act, has permanent authority to finance procurement of defense articles and services to be sold on cash or credit terms to foreign countries. The revolving fund, from which these advances are made, is replenished by payments from the purchasing government. According to the ŎMB, the most recent revised budget estimate for this account shows a net budget authority requirement for fiscal year 1977 of $115.7 million and a negative outlay impact of $200 million.

This budget account was created by section 524 (b) (2) of the Foreign Assistance Act which requires that any moneys paid into the special foreign military sales fund which was terminated on June 30, 1968, shall be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury. Indochina Postwar Reconstruction Funds

In his fiscal year 1976 security assistance request, the President asked for authority to use remaining Indochina Postwar Reconstruction funds to assume the liabilities of the South Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian Governments under any contract of such government which was financed or approved for financing by AID. Such authority is contained in pending fiscal year 1976 security assistance authorizing legislation. The outlays estimated above would be used to pay such liabilities and to pay closing costs for direct U.S. Government contracts with firms which operated in Indochina.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

The Committee on International Relations urges the Committee on the Budget to provide for the full amount authorized for fiscal year 1977 for international development assistance. In some cases, the President has requested less than the amount authorized. There is no indication that these reductions are attributable to any lessening of need for this type of assistance. On the contrary, the requirements of the poor countries for outside help remains high, worldwide inflation continues to reduce the impact of the foreign aid dollar, and the needs of the world's desperately poor people are far from met.

Even if the full amounts authorized for international development assistance are appropriated, these amounts, together with food aid under Public Law 480, contributions to international agencies, and other economic assistance funds, commonly referred to as Official Development Assistance, would amount to only 0.23 percent of the U.S. gross national product. In 1974 with 0.25 percent of our GNP devoted to Official Development Assistance (ODA), the United States ranked 13th out of 17 industrialized countries, based on the ODA/GNP ratio; only Austria, Finland, Italy, and Switzerland had lower ratios.

The levels of funding for development assistance contained in H.R. 9005 (the International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1975) have very good support in the House. The bill passed by an 89-vote margin, and the conference report by a 115-vote margin. This bill represents at least a beginning of a U.S. response-financially, not just rhetorically-to the vast needs acknowledged at the World Food Conference, over a year ago, and in Secretary Kissinger's statement to the Seventh Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly this past fall.

The problem of development is a human problem and is best seen in the perspective of human beings:

An estimated 800 million persons in the developing world suffer from malnutrition.

For the poorest, life expectancy is almost 30 years less than in the United States.

Infant mortality is nearly four times higher than in the United States. One of every five children dies before the age of 5.

There is no regular access to health services for 85 percent of the people in less-developed nations.

Current world population of 4 billion will double in 40 years if present growth rates continue. Population growth in the lessdeveloped countries will account for 85 percent of that growth. Through development assistance, the United States seeks to help solve those most pressing problems of poor people in poor countries. The human perspective is most important in assessing the impact of congressional action on the attitudes of the Third World countries. Given the human perspective described above, we should be mindful of the way the world's poorest countries view this action of the representatives of the people of the world's richest country. If we do not increase, however slightly, our level of development assistance, other donors will be discouraged, and inevitable consequences will follow: Without an increase in United States and other donor official assistance, economic stagnation will characterize the 2d Development Decade.

Without an increase in U.S. official development assistance our rhetorical commitment to development, expressed by the Secretary of State at the U.N. 7th Special Session and more recently in Latin America and by our delegation to the World Food Conference, will be running several percentage points ahead of our actual disbursements of Official Development Assistance.

The present and impending gap between our pronouncements and our performance in the economic assistance area cannot help but exacerbate the North-South split between the rich and poor nations.

U.S. efforts to persuade OPEC countries to increase their assistance flows are not likely to meet with much success as long as U.S. assistance flows remain constant or actually decline. The timing of this year's congressional action is critical toward assuring a continuation of the momentum of congressional initiatives to reform and reshape the development assistance program. Beginning in 1973 the House initiated and the Congress supported legislation to overhaul development aid:

Specifically, the legislation of 1973 and 1975 focused our development assistance on the most basic and pervasive problems of the poor, and narrowed our priorities to areas of critical impor

tance:

Food production and nutrition,

Family planning and health, and

Education and human resources development.

The Agency for International Development is responding to this congressional initiative and has directed its energies to changing the focus of the program to meet the congressional mandate.

In Public Law 94-161 (H.R. 9005) the Congress approved levels higher than the budget request for new development assistance programs consistent with these reforms.

Unfortunately, the fiscal year 1976 economic assistance program under title I of the foreign assistance appropriation bill, now pending before the Senate, is $206 million below the Presi dent's budget request and over $318 million below the level authorized by the House.

It is, therefore, imperative, given the anticipated reductions in the fiscal year 1976 foreign assistance appropriation and the already disproportionately small share of our GNP devoted to ODA, that the House budget resolution level recommended by the Committee on the Budget be sufficiently high to accommodate the fiscal year 1977 levels contained in Public Law 94-161 (H.R. 9005).

That AID could wisely program and obligate funds at the authorized level in fiscal year 1977 is without question for the following

reasons:

The President's fiscal year 1977 budget request necessarily assumed full appropriation of the administration's fiscal year 1976 request. It now appears that this fiscal year 1976 economic assistance appropriation will be in the range of $200 million below the President's request.

This $200 million shortfall will necessarily have to be deferred and incorporated into fiscal year 1977 and future year appropri

ations.