House bill needs support.
URGENT Action Alert on Colombian Military Aid and Aerial Spraying Latin America Working Group Colombia Update: June 28, 2001
Dear Friends,
Right now is our best chance for this whole year to affect the next Congressional aid package to Colombia - to cut military aid and suspend aerial spraying of herbicides.
In the House, the bill goes now to the full Appropriations Committee on July 10 and then to the House floor around July 17th. On both these dates, there are likely to be amendments offered to the bill that would cut US military
aid to Colombia and put a brake on fumigation. The Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee will consider the foreign operations appropriations bill during the third week of July.
Please read below and contact your members of Congress ASAP to let them
know
how they should vote on this issue.
=====================================================
Latin America Working Group Colombia Update: June 28, 2001
Tel: 202/546-7010
E-mail: estarmer@lawg.org
A Chance to say NO to Colombia Military aid and Fumigation
Please see the bottom of this alert for background information on the
Andean
Regional Initiative, Bush's proposal for counternarcotics aid to the
Andes.
This year, the counternarcotics aid requested by the Bush administration
for
Colombia and the Andean region comes up in the Congress as part of two
of
the regular annual appropriations bills (main budget bills which
designate
money to different areas, such as foreign operations, agriculture, and
energy). The bulk of the aid is included in the Foreign Operations
Appropriations Bill; the rest will be in the defense appropriations
bill,
which has not yet started moving in congress. The Foreign Ops
Appropriations bill started on June 27th in the House Foreign Operations
Subcommittee, where the first draft of the bill was "marked up" or
debated
and voted on. The debate during the markup showed that there is
increasing
support for cutting military aid and putting a moratorium on fumigation.
See below for details on the markup.
Update and Urgent Action: House
>From the subcommittee, the bill goes now to the full Appropriations
Committee on July 10 and then to the House floor around July 17th. On
both
these dates, there are likely to be amendments offered to the bill which
would cut US military aid to Colombia and put a brake on fumigation.
Please contact your representative before July 10 if they are on the
Appropriations Committee to tell them to vote YES on amendments to cut
Colombian military aid and YES on amendments to stop or place a
moratorium
on fumigation until serious alternative development programs are ready.
If
you get an indication of how a member will vote, please e-mail
lawg@lawg.org
with a report.
Thank your members who supported these amendments in the markup! On
June
27th, Rep. Rothman (D-NJ) offered an amendment to place a moratorium on
fumigation and Reps. Pelosi (D-CA), Lowey (D-NY) and Jackson (D-IL)
spoke in
favor; Rep. Kingston (R-GA) expressed concerns as well. Rep. Pelosi
offered
an amendment to cut 0 million from military aid to Colombia and spend
it
instead on international tuberculosis programs. Reps. Wicker (R-MS),
Lowey,
and Obey (D-WI) spoke in favor. All of these members should be thanked
by
their constituents. While these amendments were withdrawn and not
brought
to a vote, they served to bring attention to how controversial Colombia
policy has become. Because of the strong debate on these issues in
subcommittee, it is likely that other amendments will be offered by
these
members and others when the bill goes to the full Appropriations
Committee
and the House floor.
House Appropriations Committee members:
Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL)
Henry Bonilla (R-TX)
F. Allen Boyd (D-FL)
Sonny Callahan (R-AL)
James Clyburn (D-SC)
Robert "Bud" E. Jr. Cramer (D-AL)
Randy Cunningham (R-CA)
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Tom DeLay (R-TX)
Norman Dicks (D-WA)
John Doolittle (R-CA)
Chet Edwards (D-TX)
Jo Ann H. Emerson (R-MO)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Chaka Fattah (D-PA)
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Virgil H. Goode (D-VA)
Kay Granger (R-TX)
Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)
David Hobson (R-OH)
Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD)
Ernest, Jr. Istook (R-OK)
Jesse Jackson (D-IL)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Partick J. Kennedy (D-RI)
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-MI)
Jack Kingston (R-GA)
Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI)
Jim Kolbe (R-AZ)
Ray LaHood (R-IL)
Tom Latham (R-IA)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Nita M. Lowey (D-NY)
Carrie Meek (D-FL)
Dan Miller (R-FL)
Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
James P. Moran (D-VA)
John P. Murtha (D-PA)
George R. Nethercutt (R-WA)
Anne M. Northup (R-KY)
David R. Obey (D-WI)
John W. Olver (D-MA)
Ed Pastor (D-AZ)
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
John E. Peterson (R-PA)
David E.Price (D-NC)
Ralph Regula (R-OH)
Harold Rogers (R-KY)
Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN)
Jose Serrano (D-NY)
Joe Skeen (R-NM)
John E. Sununu (R-NH)
John E. Sweeney (R-NY)
Charles H. Taylor (R-NC)
Todd Tiahrt (R-KS)
Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN)
David Vitter (R-LA)
James T. Walsh (R-NY)
Zach Wamp (R-TN)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)
C.W. Bill Young (R-FL)
If you are not sure who your representative is, go to www.house.gov
Update and Urgent Action: Senate
The Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee will consider the foreign
operations appropriations bill during the third week of July. Members
of
the subcommittee and the full appropriations committee should hear from
constituents. Please contact both your senators, doing so before July
15 if
they are on the appropriations committee, and tell them your opinion on
US
military aid to Colombia and the fumigation policy.
Senate Appropriations Committee Members:
Democrats:
Robert Byrd (WV)
Daniel Inouye (HI)
Ernest Hollings (SC)
Patrick Leahy (VT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Harry Reid (NV)
Herb Kohl (WI)
Patty Murray (WA)
Byron Dorgan (ND)
Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Richard Durbin (IL)
Republicans:
Ted Stevens (AK)
Thad Cochran (MS)
Arlen Specter (PA)
Pete Domenici (NM)
Christopher Bond (MO)
Mitch McConnell (KY)
Conrad Burns (MT)
Richard Shelby (AL)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Robert Bennett (UT)
Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO)
Larry Craig (ID)
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
Jon Kyl (AZ)
It is crucial to voice our opinions on current US policy in Colombia and
the
Andean region at each stage in the process. Please spread the word and
contact your senators and representatives as soon as possible! If you
are not sure who your representative is, go to www.senate.gov
Background.
In late March, the Bush Administration announced its plans to continue a
military counter-drug strategy in the Andes with its proposed "Andean
Regional Initiative"(ARI). This initiative requests military and social
and
economic aid for Colombia and its neighbors: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Venezuela, Brazil, and Panama. Most of this aid will come through the
regular foreign operations appropriations bill, but additional aid will
come
through the defense appropriations bill. Together, the aid totals about
billion in military and police assistance and economic and social aid
to
the Andean region for 2002 (this is on top of the .3 billion two-year
package approved last year). The administration intends to send a
massive
3.04 million in training, spare parts and equipment for Colombia's
military and police forces. This funding will expand support for
fumigation, an extreme policy with negative effects on the environment.
The administration is selling the ARI package as "balanced," with 50% of
the
money going to regional security forces and 50% for social and economic
development. However, the request for Colombia is still 71% military.
The
package also includes sharp increases in military aid for all of
Colombia's
neighbors. The one positive element, a result of all of the criticism
last
year, is an increase in alternative development assistance (crop
substitution programs) to a number of countries in the region. For a
full
analysis of the package by the Center for International Policy, please
click
here.
This action alert was written by the Latin America Working Group. For
more
information, please see our website at www.lawg.org or call
202/546-7010.
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Original: House Bill to ban Colombian "aid"/ fumigation-carnage