Vermonters, like most Americans, recognize that events outside our borders can have direct and dramatic consequences for our health and safety.  Isolationism is not an option in a world in which a deadly infectious disease, or a terrorist attack, is only a plane trip away.

Poverty, greed and ethnic and religious intolerance are among the greatest causes of instability and conflict.  Famine in East Africa, crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia, or the destruction of forests by mining companies in South America, affect the lives of Americans half a world away. More than two billion people earn less than $2 a day and live in appallingly destitute conditions.  As the wealthiest nation we have a moral responsibility to help them improve their lives, yet we spend only one percent of our Federal budget on foreign aid -- less than most other industrialized nations on a per capita basis.

Among the foreign policy/foreign aid initiatives I am proudest of are the Leahy War Victims Fund, which provides medical, vocational and related assistance to civilian victims of war; my work to ban landmines, including the first law in any country to ban the export of these indiscriminate weapons; the "Leahy Law," which prohibits U.S. aid to foreign military and police forces that violate human rights; my infectious disease and neglected diseases initiatives which target malaria, elephantiasis, and other diseases that afflict hundreds of millions of people in tropical countries; and the Amazon Basin Conservation Strategy, a regional initiative to promote conservation of the Amazon rainforest.