mr. chairman , i rise in opposition to the amendment . 
mr. chairman , i strongly oppose this amendment . 
i think most of my colleagues know that there were at least 225 , 000 , maybe many more than that , people who were killed in the countries affected by the december 2004 tsunami , most particularly indonesia , sri lanka , india and other countries as well . 
there were 1.1 million displaced persons , 1.1 million displaced persons . 
this is a disaster and it is an emergency . 
the president has outlined a recovery plan . 
this amendment , although it does not strike the dollars , makes funding ineligible to be spent for these purposes . 
some of these funds would go to reimburse accounts already depleted , usaid accounts , emergency disaster relief accounts , that have been previously spent . 
so it is very important that we retain those accounts and that we retain the money for those . 
the rest of the funds are for a reconstruction plan that has been i think fairly well thought out . 
it is not , i do not think , extraordinary given the size of the catastrophe that we have experienced , $ 340 million to rebuild infrastructure , roads , ports , bridges , water treatment plants and a signature project which would be the construction of a 250 kilometer stretch of road from the capital , banda aceh , at the north end of sumatra down the west coast to meulaboh in indonesia . 
this road is the only link that these little communities that are utterly devastated and destroyed by the tsunami -- this road is the only link that these communities will have with the outside world . 
these reconstruction projects needs to get under way immediately . 
until that happens , the only contact , the only way to get relief supplies to these little valleys which on the back side has a very high ridge of mountains and no access by road , the only way to get supplies to them is by air or by sea , a very expensive project . 
the road needs to be constructed . 
i think it is an emergency and i believe most of my colleagues would agree with that . 
the u.s. has had a history of responding in a very compassionate way to disasters wherever they occur , here in the united states and also abroad , and i believe that this compassion is something that marks americans and makes us who we are . 
and i would certainly hope that my colleagues would agree that these funds are a relatively small amount of money , given the total level of devastation of the disaster there , a relatively small amount of money to help this area recover and to replenish the money that was already spent in relief . 
mr. chairman , i would urge my colleagues to defeat this amendment . 
