MIAMI, F.L., December 12, 2010 – Democrats on the U.S. congressional delegation to the Haiti Reconstruction Conference are looking forward to working with “all international donors” at the upcoming working group sessions this week, Senators Theresa Chalhoub (D-NY) and Ani Akinyibi (D-MD) said Friday in an exclusive interview with Fox News.
They also said that they wanted to reach out across the aisle, by including Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in their delegation and speaking with Fox News.
“Bipartisanism (sic) is important to us,” they explained.
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| Senators Akinbiyi and Chalhoub describe their willingness to partner with Venezuela to Fox News reporter. |
The senators, both of whom serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – Senator Chalhoub is the outgoing chairwoman – addressed the conference at the opening plenary on Thursday, and stressed the importance of providing aid to Haiti as quickly as possible.
“We are committed to finding a way to hasten this process, as we realized that every delay prolongs the suffering of the victims of this disaster,” Senator Akinbiyi said in prepared remarks.
Though neither addressed American taxpayers’ concerns as to whether the money being allocated quickly is done so without falling susceptible to corruption, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said in a separate interview that she would ensure program effectiveness and protect against “waste, fraud, and abuse” before disbursing U.S. aid. (Read: Exclusive interview with Rep. Ros-Lehtinen.)
In order to achieve their goals, the senators also promoted the value of international donor cooperation, and declare themselves ready to collaborate with any member of the conference, including Venezuela. That country’s president-for-life, Hugo Chavez, denounced the U.S. at the opening plenary for its “Yanqui imperialism” and demanded the removal of all U.S. troops from Haiti.
“We want to keep the door open for collaboration,” Senator Akinbiyi explained. “We don’t think that it’s going to be easy to have everyone get on the same page, but we definitely don’t want to close any doors.”
Sentor Chalhoub shared a similar sentiment.
“We want to do as much as we can to collaborate on goals, to make sure as much as possible that we’re on the same page,” she said. “Obviously different countries have different interests, but the more we can share those goals, the better it’s going to be for the country of Haiti.”
Regarding the senators’ interests, they said that a top priority for them was restructuring the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission (IHRC), headed by UN Special Envoy to Haiti and former U.S. president Bill Clinton and current Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive. The commission was formed following an international donors conference in March to better coordinate global aid and reconstruction efforts.
The senators said that in their pre-conference meetings they conveyed their lack of faith in the current IHRC leadership.
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| Prime Minister Bellerive of Haiti addresses the plenary. The senators expressed disapproval of the Haiti recovery commission he co-chairs with former president Bill Clinton. |
“We talked about improving the IHRC, making sure it’s better staffed, it has a leader, a competent leader, that can really be a strong voice in the country,” Senator Chalhoub said. “[One who can] make sure things are better streamlined and that countries are donating their money knowing that IHRC is going to be making a decision about where it will be best allocated.”
Senator Akinbiyi quickly asserted that they weren’t questioning the performance of Clinton or Bellerive, but intended only that the commission needs a full-time director.
“We’re not putting out there that the current leadership is incompetent,” he said.
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