Clinton signs foreign assistance bill with $225 M earmark (02/04/96)

Clinton signs foreign assistance bill with $225 M earmark

by Eugene M. Iwanciw

WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton signed the Foreign Assistance Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1996 into law on January 26. The $12.1 billion legislation mandates "not less than" $225 million for Ukraine, making Ukraine the third largest recipient of U.S. assistance after Israel and Egypt. U.S. assistance to Russia is capped at "no more than" $195 million.

Though initially passed by both the House and the Senate in the fall, the legislation was stalled due to an impasse between the House and Senate on abortion language contained in the bill. The House-Senate Conference Committee resolved all the differences between the two passed versions, save the abortion amendment.

Despite considerable pressure from many quarters, Rep. Chris Smith (R -N.J.), the author of the restrictive House language, which both the Senate and the administration strongly opposed, refused to compromise or agree to remove any mention of abortion in the bill. This stalemate on the legislation prevented the release of funds for foreign assistance programs for virtually one-third of the 1996 fiscal year.

To avert another government shutdown, the House on January 25 passed a continuing resolution to fund government departments, agencies, and programs that have not had their appropriations bills signed into law. To that resolution, the House added the conference report on foreign assistance, with the abortion provision modified. The following day the Senate passed the continuing resolution and sent it to the president for signature. It was signed later in the day.

While the continuing resolution funds many other government programs only until mid-March, funding for foreign assistance programs extends to September 30, the end of the fiscal year.

The delay in passing the foreign assistance legislation was especially frustrating to the Ukrainian American community, which for years has lobbied for increased assistance to Ukraine. Due to the scant assistance provided Ukraine by the administration, in 1993 the Congress, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), began to earmark higher levels of assistance for Ukraine than that requested by the administration.

Two previous earmark efforts strongly proposed by the Clinton administration forced the Congress to "recommend" rather than mandate higher levels of aid. With the Republican takeover of Congress and the deteriorating political situation in Russia, the administration was unable to sway the Congress from its position of strong support for Ukraine.

The bill reduced over-all foreign assistance $1.4 billion below fiscal year 1995 totals and $2.7 billion below the president's request. The $640 million of assistance to other new independent states of the former Soviet Union was reduced $202 million below 1995 levels and $148 million below the president's request. Assistance to Ukraine, however, increased $75 million over 1995 levels and $65 million above the president's request.

Due to the snail's pace of economic reform in Ukraine, Congress did make assistance to Ukraine contingent on Ukraine's undertaking "significant economic reforms."

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