Fox News Exclusive: Ros-Lehtinen Not Optimistic About Conference Outcomes

Fox News

MIAMI, F.L., December 12, 2010 – There is a palpable tension between the generosity of the American people and those who want to benefit from that generosity without any oversight, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) told Fox News on Friday in an exclusive interview.

The representative also said that the American people cannot afford significant foreign aid at a time of runaway deficit spending.

“The United States has its own problems,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “We have a budget deficit that’s not going away anytime soon and to just throw money at the problem and empower folks who aren’t interested in American interests doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.”

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) sits down with Fox News reporter to discuss her pessimistic outlook towards the conference.

She praised the “strength of the U.S. military and the U.S. diplomatic corps” but warned that we must prevent “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the process of rebuilding Haiti. She spoke to Fox News in the midst of the Haiti Reconstruction Conference, which is being hosted in her Miami district. (Sidebar: The congresswoman on Chavez and the UN.)

The congresswoman is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and is poised to become chairwoman when the new Republican Congress takes over in January 2011. Republicans won 63 new House seats and six Senate seats in what was largely viewed as a repudiation of President Obama and the Democratic leadership.

Ros-Lehtinen praised the generosity of the American people and government in pledging aid to the struggling nation.

“I speak for all Americans when I say that we are committed to serving as a partner to both the [people and the government of Haiti in their efforts to rebuild,” she said in her prepared remarks at the opening plenary on Thursday.

The U.S. Congress has collaborated with the Haitian government in legislative-legislative training projects. Ros-Lehtinen recommended further cooperation in assisting Haiti build the technical capacity to collect tax revenue, and proposed assistance from the Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service.

These programs need to be in place “so that the Haitians are able to govern themselves, which is ultimately the goal,” she said.

However, she recognized the limits of U.S. financial assistance in a time of domestic economic crisis and said that the U.S. needs to “trim the fat” off of foreign assistance, a decision which she will be uniquely poised to carry out in the next Congress.

Ros-Lehtinen highlighted her role as the only Republican on the four-member congressional delegation to the conference, and said that so far she enjoyed working on the bipartisan team and has reached consensus with her liberal colleagues. (Read: Exclusive interview with Democratic senators.)

“Chairman [Howard] Berman and I have a very strong working relationship.” she said. “I think that we have a lot of common interests.”

The "bipartisan" U.S. congressional delegation, which only contains one Republican. "They're trying to stack the deck," Rep. Ros-Lehtinen explains.

Ros-Lehtinen has reserved judgment as to whether she will be able to sign on to the final report of the Conference, to be promulgated at the final plenary this Thursday.

“The Democratic Congress[men are] going to write a document that I don’t think I’m going to be able to support, because it won’t have the safeguards in place to protect taxpayer interests and that’s ultimately what I’m concerned with,” she said. “Of course we need to do all we can to help our partners in Haiti, but there needs to be some financial restraint.”