WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC) voted against the conference report on H.R. 2346 – legislation making emergency supplemental appropriations to fund ongoing military, diplomatic and intelligence activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere – due to the inclusion of unrelated funding for the expansion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Congressman Jones voted in support of the emergency war supplemental, without the IMF expansion, when it overwhelmingly passed the House on May 14, 2009.

The inclusion of President Obama’s request to increase the IMF’s borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury by $108 billion is intended to meet the President’s pledge following the Group of 20 summit in April of this year, where world leaders agreed to expand the IMF’s emergency borrowing authority by $500 billion. Although the White House and Democrats in Congress have downplayed the contribution’s effect on the federal budget, the U.S. Treasury would need to borrow any amount it gives or loans the IMF. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this expansion of borrowing authority will cost $5 billion.

The conference report on H.R. 2346 passed the House by a vote of 226 to 202.

Congressman Jones’ statement on the vote follows below:

“I’ve been very public in stating that I have had increasing difficulty voting to fund President Obama’s open-ended commitment of money and troops in Afghanistan, without established benchmarks for success and the ultimate completion of our operations there.”

“But in this instance I am most troubled by the Democrats’ decision to use an emergency war supplemental – which provides our troops with the funding they need in the battlefield – as a vehicle to send billions of taxpayer dollars overseas. With the federal government already running more than $2 trillion in deficits, it makes no sense for the U.S. to borrow from nations like China in order to provide money for an international institution that will dole out funds to developing nations that compete with America for jobs.”

“America’s total public debt stands at an astronomical $11.3 trillion and, in the past five years, foreign ownership of that debt has roughly doubled from $1.6 to more than $3 trillion. China holds nearly one third of that money. Right now, every household in America would have to write a check for $39,451 to pay our foreign creditors.”

“With America suffering an economic downturn, we need to take measures to prevent a bad situation from growing worse. This unprecedented IMF expansion will permanently increase by ten-fold the IMF’s ability to borrow from the U.S. Treasury and allow the IMF to triple its lending capacity while shrinking capital reserves. Our government shouldn’t turn a blind eye while the dollar is destroyed, and it shouldn’t continue growing our debt by sending American tax dollars overseas. It’s time to stop spending what we don’t have and start rebuilding America.”