Senate Panel Approves $8 Billion in Funds for Kosovo, Colombia

A Senate panel Tuesday approved nearly $8 billion in emergency funds to pay for Kosovo peacekeeping, Colombian anti-drug efforts and disaster relief, and endorsed a measure requiring Congress to approve an extended U.S. troop deployment in Kosovo.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also moved to require the Clinton administration to certify by July 1 that European allies are meeting financial and humanitarian assistance commitments in Kosovo, or else begin withdrawing U.S. troops.

The package of fiscal year 2000 emergency funds--much smaller than a $13 billion bill approved by the House of Representatives in March--was moved into three routine spending bills after Republican Leader Trent Lott rejected putting the money into one large spending package.

The full Senate will consider the first of the bills this week, and differences with the House versions will be settled in a joint House-Senate negotiating committee.

The Kosovo amendments, offered by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.), were attached to a $4.7-billion emergency package aimed at replenishing military funds already spent to quell ethnic violence in Kosovo.

The Byrd amendment would cut off funding for the 5,900 U.S. troops in Kosovo after July 1, 2001, unless Congress authorizes them to stay. Byrd said delaying the deadline until next year would allow the next president to make the final decision.

Congress never voted or debated the dispatch of U.S. peacekeeping troops to Kosovo at the conclusion of the NATO air war in 1999, and senators made it clear continued participation must be a congressional call.

“I think it’s time Congress exercised its constitutional responsibility,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas).

The amendment also withholds some Kosovo funds until President Clinton certifies that NATO allies are meeting their commitments for monetary reconstruction assistance, humanitarian assistance, civilian police and government administration assistance.

If that certification is not made by July 15 of this year, those funds will be used for a U.S. troop withdrawal. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the panel, said administration officials told him the certification would not be a problem.

The foreign-operations package also included a provision requiring that resources “obligated and expended” by the United States in Kosovo not exceed 15% of the total expended by all donors.

The panel also approved nearly $1 billion, far less than the $1.6 billion sought by Clinton, to help train and equip Colombia’s military and national police to fight the illegal drug trade that has fueled a bloody civil war and produced most of the cocaine and heroin on U.S. streets.

Senators expressed concern about entering the Colombian drug wars, warning of “mission creep” that could leave troops in a Vietnam-like quagmire and voted to cap the number of U.S. troops and civilians in the Colombian anti-drug effort at 250 and 100, respectively.

The administration “doesn’t have the foggiest idea of how long we’ll be there or what we’re going to spend,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

The panel voted 15-11 to reject an amendment by Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) that would have slashed the Colombian funds to $100 million.

“It’s irresponsible to be spending $1 billion in this fashion without any serious debate on it,” Gorton said.

Senate rules will require each of the emergency packages to gain 60 votes, and Stevens told reporters he did not think the Colombia package could muster 60 votes right now.

The panel also approved about $1.5 billion for disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd, which hit parts of the East Coast, and other 1999 natural disasters.

The committee added about $600 million in other projects to the emergency spending package, committee staff said, although the final numbers were not complete.