US Congress Clears More Funds for Both War and Relief
WASHINGTON, 20 December (IPS): The American Congress this week approved a 560 billion US dollar omnibus 2008 appropriation that includes 70 billion dollar more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and sizable increases in development, refugee, and disaster assistance.
The bill, which President George W. Bush is expected to sign into law soon, provides for a nearly 50 percent increase – to 4,66 billion dollar – in spending on fighting diseases, such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, that particularly afflict developing countries.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a multilateral facility to which the administration has been reluctant to contribute, will get a record 845 million dollar, 120 million more than last years appropriation.
At the same time, Congress approved 1,7 billion dollar for UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) next year. While that was 600 million dollar more than Bush had requested, it still fell far short of the 2,3 billion dollar that Washington is supposed to pay as its share of the world bodys 10 billion-dollar regular and PKO budget.
As a result, US outstanding arrears to the UN will rise more than 1,5 billion dollar, according to the Washington-based UN Foundation (UNF) whose president, former senator Timothy Wirth, noted that Washingtons failure to honour its treaty obligations “undermines the UN, short-changes key allies, and does not help advance Americas reputation in the world.”
Both the administration and the opposition Democrats compromised in order to finish work on the 2008 appropriations bill before breaking for the Christmas holidays.
While Democrats prevailed on a number of key domestic priorities, Bush did much better on foreign policy. His top agenda item was the 70 billion dollar in unrestricted funding for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because that amount fell short of the 200 billion dollar the administration has said it needs to finance the two wars through next September when the fiscal year ends, Bush will have to get supplemental funding from Congress some time next spring.
The fact that the majority Democrats failed to muster enough support to impose tough conditions on the aid, let alone a timetable for the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq as they tried unsuccessfully to do several times over the last ten months, marked a major political victory for Bush.
The administrations position was boosted by the widespread impression that their controversial “Surge” strategy has succeeded in substantially reducing sectarian violence.
On less controversial foreign-aid issues, however, Democrats made headway in moving policy into line with their priorities. The 2008 appropriation was their first opportunity to reshape the foreign-aid budget since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in the mid-term elections of Nov. 2006.
As a result, Congress not only sharply increased funding for Washingtons global health initiatives, but also provided about 1,8 billion dollar for child- survival and maternal-health programmes; a boost of nearly seven percent over the 2007 appropriation and almost 300 million dollar more than what Bush had requested.
At the same time, however, a veto threat by Bush succeeded in persuading the Democratic leadership to drop language that had been approved by both houses that would have eased the so-called Mexico City policy that bans any US health-related aid from going to family-planning groups overseas that provide or promote abortion.
On bilateral development assistance, the 2008 appropriation provides 1,6 billion dollar, nearly an eight percent increase over the 2007 level and 600 million dollar more than what Bush had requested.
The biggest winner within the development assistance account was basic education programmes for which 400 million dollar of the total was earmarked. For all foreign-aid accounts, basic education in developing countries netted 700 million dollar.
For international disaster assistance, Congress approved a total of some 430 million dollar – nearly a 20 percent increase over the level approved for 2007 and more than 30 percent above what Bush had requested.
Congress also increased the migration and refugee account by a similar percentage – to just over 1 billion dollars – or almost 200 million dollar more than the 2007 level, in part as a result of growing concern about the plight of refugees from Iraq.
Much of the additional money for health, development, and humanitarian relief came at the expense of one of Bushs signature programmes, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which is designed to reward countries that are committed to US-favoured political and economic reforms with higher aid levels.
Bush had requested 3 billion dollar for the MCA in 2008, but Congress, which has expressed disappointment with lengthy delays in the programmes disbursement of past funding, approved barely half that amount – 200 million dollar less than it had appropriated for the MCA last year.
As for specific countries, Israel (2,4 billion dollar) and Egypt (1,3 billion dollar), will once again receive the bulk of the 4,6 billion dollars appropriated for military aid overseen by the State Department. The Pentagon has its own aid accounts.
The appropriation calls on Bush to withhold 100 million of 412 million dollar in economic aid earmarked for Egypt until it improves its human rights performance and proves that it is not aiding Islamist militants in Gaza.
Congress also imposed new restrictions on US military and economic aid to Pakistan, which has received some 10 billion dollar in official US aid since 2001 as an incentive for co-operation with Washingtons “war on terror.”
Of the 650 million dollar earmarked for military and security assistance, 50 million would be withheld until the administration certified that Islamabad had restored democratic rule and was co-operating fully in counter-terrorism efforts.
In addition, none of the 350 million dollar in economic aid authorised for Pakistan next year could take the form of cash transfers which lawmakers worried were being used as a slush fund for President Pervez Musharraf and the army.
The aid instead will have to be allocated to specific projects monitored by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The bill provides nearly 540 million dollar in emergency economic aid for Afghanistan, but requires the administration to first certify that the government of President Hamid Karzai is co-operating in efforts to eradicate poppy fields.
Darfur will also be a major beneficiary of US aid in 2008. One third – or 550 million dollar – of Washingtons contribution to UN PKOs is earmarked for UNAMID, the UN-African Union force that is supposed to begin operations in Darfur January.
Another 209 million dollar is earmarked for humanitarian programmes in the violence-torn Sudanese region.
Kilder: IPS og The Push Journal
