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  House Debates Spending for Counterdrug Operations
Posted by FoM on July 24, 2001 at 11:08:15 PT
By Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer 
Source: Associated Press  

justice Lawmakers are seeking to cut outlays for the fight against illegal narcotics in South America and spend more on health and disaster relief programs as the House moves to a vote on the foreign aid bill.

Supporters of the Andean counterdrug initiative say a reduction in money could seriously jeopardize efforts to fight drugs and bring economic and political stability to Colombia and its neighbors.

The debate began Tuesday with an amendment pushed by lawmakers with ties to the steel industry that would reduce funds for the Export-import bank by $18 million, the amount of a loan guarantee it provided a Chinese steel company to modernize its plant.

Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., said the bank made the loan guarantee despite the glut in world steel production. "Their rules say they never should have made that loan in the first place and they ignored their own handbook."

The $15.2 billion foreign aid bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, up for a vote Tuesday, contains $676 million for the counterdrug initiative, already $55 million under what President Bush requested.

The successor to President Clinton's $1.3 billion anti-drug plan, which concentrated on military aid to Colombia, the initiative provides support in such areas as coca crop eradication and crop replacement, judicial reform and bringing peace to Colombia. It aids Colombia's neighbors suffering from spillover effects of illicit drugs and terrorism in that country.

Cutting funds for the program would be "wrongheaded, dangerous and could jeopardize the future of the democracies in the Andes as well as the lives of American children," Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., said when the House opened debate on the bill last Thursday.

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations foreign aid subcommittee, said the United States has "realized no benefits from our programs in terms of increased stability and prosperity in Colombia, and I think we need to take a careful look at this program before we allow it to continue."

Among several amendments expected to be offered on the Andean initiative Tuesday, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., is seeking to cut $100 million from the military aspect of the initiative, shifting the money to child survival, maternal health and tuberculosis and malaria programs.

The foreign aid bill also includes $474 million for international AIDS efforts, $768 million for Russia and former states of the Soviet Union, $2.7 billion in military and economic aid for Israel and $2 billion in aid for Egypt.

It requires the president to determine whether the Palestine Liberation Organization is complying with commitments to renounce terrorism and includes possible sanctions, including closing the PLO information office in Washington, if the PLO doesn't meet its promises.

"We send an unequivocal signal to Chairman (Yasser) Arafat that we expect him to take concrete steps to end the violence and terrorism that has gripped the region," Lowey said.

The foreign aid bill is H.R. 2506

Complete Title: House Debates Spending for Counterdrug Operations in South America

On the Net:

House Appropriations
http://www.house.gov/appropriations/


Source: Associated Press
Author: Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer
Published: Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press

Related Articles & Web Site:

Colombia Drug War News
http://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htm

Lawmakers Shrink From Foreign Drug War
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10398.shtml

House Faces Colombian Drug Vote
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10396.shtml


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Comment #2 posted by Sudaca on July 24, 2001 at 13:28:41 PT
should read
"Supporters of the Andean counterdrug initiative say a reduction in money could seriously jeopardize efforts to fight drugs and bring economic and political stability to Colombia and its neighbors. "

"Supporters of the Andean counterdrug initiative say a reduction in money could seriously jeopardize efforts to fight drugs, and bring economic and political stability to Colombia and its neighbors. "


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Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 24, 2001 at 12:15:06 PT
C-Span
Hi Everyone,
I'm watching C Span and they are talking about Colombia.

Here are the links.

http://www.c-span.org/

http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dschedule

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