Clinton Vetoes GOP’s Bill to Overhaul Foreign Policy

President Clinton vetoed Republican-backed legislation Friday that reorganized the government’s foreign policy bureaucracy and demanded a diplomatic assault on relations with China.

Clinton accused the lawmakers of unconstitutional meddling with his authority over foreign affairs.

“This legislation contains many unacceptable provisions that would undercut U.S. leadership abroad and damage our ability to assure the future security and prosperity of the American people,” the president said in a written veto message.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), passed the Senate, 52 to 44, and the House 226 to 172. The party-line vote in each house was well below the two-thirds majority necessary to override the veto, the 14th of Clinton’s presidency.

The measure was one of the most partisan foreign policy bills enacted by Congress at least since the end of World War II. It contained a laundry list of policy initiatives ranging from a ban on passports for parents who are behind on child support payments to new restrictions on diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

The bill would have ordered a series of steps that were clearly designed to infuriate China’s communist leadership, including an invitation to Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to visit the United States and a requirement for the administration to appoint an envoy to the exile “government” of Tibet.

The bill also would have toughened U.S. policy toward Chinese human rights violations and created a Radio Free Asia to beam propaganda broadcasts.

“The ongoing management of our relations with China is one of the central challenges of the United States’ foreign policy but this bill would complicate, not facilitate, that task,” Clinton said.

The measure also would abolish the Agency for International Development, U.S. Information Agency and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Their duties would be folded into the State Department.

In a last-minute compromise, backers of the bill agreed to allow the president to keep open any two of the agencies, in effect requiring Clinton to decide which one he wanted to get rid of.

Helms said the consolidation would save $1.8 billion if all three agencies were abolished. He warned that the American people will “have a revolution of their own this November” if Clinton were to veto the spending cuts.

Officially, the bill is the foreign relations authorization bill for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. In a normal year the authorization bill sets policy and establishes limits on spending, with funding provided in a later appropriations bill. However, this year’s budget impasse has upset all that. The State Department is being funded under a stopgap bill that does not require a separate authorization.

Although the bill calls for deep cuts in most overseas spending, it maintains foreign aid for Israel at $3 billion and Egypt at $2.1 billion, by far the highest assistance programs.

The measure also would impose new restrictions on U.S. participation in the United Nations and other international organizations.

For instance, it would have limited U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations to 25%, down from a little more than 30%. And it would prohibit U.S. participation in “international organizations espousing world government.” It did not name any such organizations.