Lugar, Crane Reintroduce Sanctions Reforms, While Colleagues Earn Their Pro-Israel PAC Contributions

By Shirl McArthur

To summarize, Congress has been more concerned with developments in Serbia and Kosovo than in the Middle East. Nevertheless, both houses passed a congressional budget resolution cutting funding for foreign affairs by about 15 percent. Emergency supplemental appropriations are still hung up in a squabble with the administration. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL) have reintroduced the sanctions reform bill that was allowed to die in the last session of Congress, and the administration relaxed sanctions on Iran, Sudan, and Libya, which should allow the proposed sale of food to Iran to go through.

Administration Gives Mixed Signals to Iran

On April 28, the Clinton administration announced that it will permit U.S. firms to sell food and medicines to countries on the State Department’s list of countries supporting terrorism. The effect of this announcement is to allow food and medicine sales to Iran, Sudan, and Libya, since the other countries on the list either can already buy food and medicine from the U.S., in the case of Syria, or are covered by other U.S. or U.N. laws and sanctions.

Late last year, Iran asked to purchase more than $500 million worth of grain and sugar, which would have required a waiver from the Treasury Department. In December, a bipartisan group of 15 senators and 17 representatives wrote to the president urging that the sale be approved. Early this year some farm-state congressmen, mostly senators, were considering holding hearings to try to push the sale forward, but they decided to delay the hearings after being told that the administration was considering allowing limited commerce with Iran, which would include the grain sale.

However, the administration took pains to emphasize that this step was not a signal to Iran that Washington is ready to improve relations. Also on April 28, the administration formally denied Mobil’s “oil swap” request to provide Caspian crude to northern Iran and pick up an equal amount of crude from a southern Iranian port.

Foreign Affairs Budget Cuts

In mid-April both the House and the Senate passed a budget resolution which would cut total foreign affairs spending, including State Department operations, contributions to the U.N. and international organizations, and foreign aid, by about 15 percent. The resolution, which does not require the signature of the president, does not set detailed limits, but is intended to provide overall spending guidelines.

House Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee chairman Sonny Callahan (R-AL) said at an April 15 hearing, however, that he intends to live within the budget allocation for foreign aid. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded that a funding reduction of this size “would put a straitjacket around American leadership and gravely imperil short- and long-term American interests.”

Interestingly, at that same hearing, Callahan, in his opening remarks, noted the budget tightness and asked rhetorically, “Should we fund the Wye River agreement before we know whether the new government in Israel will implement the agreement fully and promptly?”

Emergency Funding Caught in “Offsets” Controversy

At the end of March both the House and Senate passed a scaled-down emergency supplemental appropriations bill intended mostly to provide disaster relief for hurricane victims in the Caribbean Basin, but also containing various other goodies, including $100 million in aid to Jordan. However, the conference committee to reconcile the two versions has not been able to produce a final bill, largely because the bills as passed offset most of the appropriations with reductions in other programs favored by the Clinton administration.

Democrats argue that this bill and the subsequent one funding the Kosovo operations are to deal with true emergencies, and should not include offsets. Appropriations Committee member David Obey (D-WI) said that “we should not place our foreign policy at the mercy of the accountants.” Nevertheless, senior Republicans, including House Appropriations Committee chairman Bill Young (R-FL), appear adamant that the budget limits should be adhered to.

In the face of the budget constrictions, Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI) has written to Albright and to Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee chairman Mitch McConnell (R-KY) urging them to assure that the Clinton administration keeps its five-year funding commitment to Lebanon. To this end, Abraham asked McConnell to consider a specific $4 million earmark for the American educational institutions in Lebanon—the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, and International College.

Lugar, Crane Reintroduce Sanctions Reform Bill

On March 24 and 25 Senator Lugar and Representative Crane reintroduced the Sanctions Reform bill that they, along with now-retired Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN), introduced in the last session of Congress. As described by Senator Lugar when he, along with 28 original co-sponsors, introduced the bill, it “does not prohibit the use of unilateral economic sanctions nor prevent a vote in Congress on a proposed new sanction. It would require a set of procedural and informational requirements—a more deliberative process—that would have to be met before new sanctions are approved in either the Congress or the executive branch.”

The bill would only deal with future economic sanctions, except that it would also give the president national-interest waiver authority on the Glenn Amendment, which imposes sanctions on nations violating the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act. It also would exempt food and medicines from economic sanctions.

In introducing his bill, which had 55 original co-sponsors, Representative Crane said that the proliferation of unilateral economic sanctions is causing damage to America’s reputation in the world, and has cost the U.S. as much as $19 billion annually in lost exports and over 200,000 lost jobs. He said the bill requires Congress and the president to address a number of “common-sense questions” such as whether or not the proposed sanction is likely to be effective.

Another Anti-Palestinian Letter to Clinton

Meanwhile, following on the Feb. 24 news conference by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) to present “evidence” of anti-Israel incitement by Palestinian authorities, as reported in the last issue of the Washington Report, Brownback and Salmon, joined by 53 other senators and representatives, wrote to President Clinton on March 19 to protest “the systematic use of anti-Semitic language in the Palestinian media and textbooks.” The letter claims that the Palestinian Authority sponsors radio and TV programs that “encourage hatred toward Jews and Israel.”

Not surprisingly, all of the senators and all but five of the representatives who signed the letter have received campaign contributions from pro-Israel political action committees (PACs) over the years. Their names and totals received follow: Senators Brownback, $38,000; John Ashcroft (R-MO) $9,000; Connie Mack (R-FL) $105,422; and Arlen Specter (R-PA) $366,373.

Representatives Salmon, $6,000; Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) $12,075; Robert Andrews (D-NJ) $21,750; Richard Baker (R-LA) $500; Howard Berman (D-CA) $44,750; Brian Bilbray (R-CA) $2,500; Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) $8,350; Dan Burton (R-IN) $57,400; Ken Calvert (R-CA) $16,500; Merrill Cook (R-UT) nothing; Joseph Crowley (D-NY) nothing; Peter Deutsch (D-FL) $24,471; Eliot Engel (D-NY) $84,200; Mike Forbes (R-NY) $10,000; Vito Fossella (R-NY) $1,250; Bob Franks (R-NJ) $500; Martin Frost (D-TX) $113,964; Kay Granger (R-TX) $5,000; Gene Green (D-TX) $2,300; Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) $25,811; J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) $3,500; Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) $15,030; Stephen Horn (R-CA) nothing; Henry Hyde (R-IL) $6,000; Sue Kelly (R-NY) $750; Tom Lantos (D-CA) $56,450; Steven LaTourette (R-OH) $7,000; Rick Lazio (R-NY) $11,500; Nita Lowey (D-NY) $61,738; Frank Lucas (R-OK) $1,000; Bill McCollum (R-FL) $12,850; Dennis Moore (D-KS) nothing; Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) $500; Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) $4,250; Anne Northup (R-KY) $3,000; Michael McNulty (D-NY) $8,000; Frank Pallone (D-NJ) $40,400; John Porter (R-IL) $55,680; Lynn Rivers (D-MI) $21,750; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) $32,490; Marge Roukema (R-NJ) $300; Jim Ryun (R-KS) $2,500; Jim Saxton (R-NJ) $39,850; Bob Schaffer (R-CO) nothing; Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) $3,000; Brad Sherman (D-CA) $22,780; John Shimkus (R-IL) $500; Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) $1,500; Jim Turner (D-TX) $500; and Anthony Weiner (D-NY) nothing.

Shirl McArthur, a retired foreign service officer, is a senior consultant with Bruce Morgan Associates, an international research and consulting firm in the Washington, DC area.