FOREIGN AID MARKUP BEGINS, BUT SPONSORS UNSURE BILL CAN WIN HOUSE APPROVAL
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP11M01338R000400470014-4
Release Decision:
RIFPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
December 23, 2016
Document Release Date:
September 13, 2013
Sequence Number:
14
Case Number:
Publication Date:
July 26, 1980
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
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CIA-RDP11M01338R000400470014-4.pdf | 132.22 KB |
Body:
.IMEEVINNWASMIEfi.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/13 : CIA-RDP11M01338R006400470014-4
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Foreign Policy/National Security - 5
several hundred million dollars from the subcommittee
proposal. (Subcommittee action, Weekly Report p. 1823)
On an amendment by Matthew F. McHugh, D-N.Y.,
a subcommittee member, the committee boosted 1981 di-
rect lending authority for the Export-Import Bank to $4.754
billion, the amount requested by President Carter. The
subcommittee had cut $500 million from Carter's request.
The committee also approved an administration re-
quest for $65 million to assist in resettling Cuban and
Haitian refugees in the United States, including $35 million
for grants to private agencies helping the refugees and
$30 million to continue operating refugee camps through
December 1980 in Florida, Arkansas and other states.
And Rep. C. W. Bill Young, R-Fla., a foreign aid critic,
sponsored a successful amendment raising the amount of
military assistance grants to $102.5 million ? $8.1 million
more than the subcommittee recommendation. Most of
the money will go to Spain, Portugal and the Philippines,
where the United States has major military bases.
The committee endorsed moves by the subcommittee
to eliminate $5.5 million in military aid to Nicaragua,
and to restrict arms sales loans to El Salvador and South
Korea.
Saying it was "deeply concerned with the continuing
violence in El Salvador," the committee instructed Carter
not to loan $5 million to that country without prior com-
mittee approval. And the committee insisted that Carter
"review developments" in South Korea to make sure the
military government does not use military equipment pur-
chased with U.S. loans to enforce martial law.
In an important victory for Carter, the committee also
rejected a move by Young to require an appropriation
of $1.4 billion in "callable capital" for the international
development banks, including the World Bank. The vote
was 27-11.
Callable capital is similar to a loan guarantee: the
banks use it to borrow money, which in turn is lent to
developing countries. None of the $11 billion previously
appropriated for callable capital has ever been spent.
This year Carter asked Congress to eliminate the re-
quirement that callable capital be appropriated. The
change will make the foreign aid bill appear $1.4 billion
smaller than if callable capital were appropriated.
But Young said Congress must appropriate the money
in order to keep "control over the banks." Taking the
callable capital out of the bill "is a sleight of hand."
Young's amendment was opposed by Clarence D.
Long, D-Md., the chairman of the Foreign Operations Sub-
committee, who reversed his position on the issue. "But
we're up against a practical problem," he said. "If you
insist on appropriating it, it means we're not going to
have a foreign aid bill."
Young then quoted from the transcript of a meeting
in March, when Long said of Carter's request: "I am going
to oppose this with everything I've got."
An embarrassed Long said he was now going along
with Carter because of the need to pass the foreign aid
bill.
The committee took no action on a last-minute ad-
ministration request for an additional $144 million for the
development banks. Carter said the money is needed to
make up for spending cuts this year.
The bill includes $1.6 billion for the banks. A Treasury
Department spokesman said that is the "absolute mini-
mum" necessary to meet U.S. obligations. That includes
$939 million for the International Development Assn. 2
Ex-Im Bank Bill Advances:
Foreign Aid Markup Begins,
But Sponsors Unsure Bill
Can Win House Approval
A House committee moved quickly the week of July
21 to provide money for the financially strapped Export.
Import Bank ? the agency that promotes U.S. exports.
House and Senate action on the stopgap funding measure
is expected the week of July 28.
In related action, the House Appropriations Commit-
tee has approved a $7.2 billion fiscal 1981 foreign aid ap-
propriations bill.
Unlike the emergency aid for the Export-Import Bank,
however, the foreign aid measure faces an uncertain future.
Congress has not approved the foreign aid appropriations
bill for fiscal 1980 (HR 4473), which ends Sept. 30, and
foreign aid supporters are not optimistic about the 1981
bill.
Export-Import Bank
The House Appropriations Committee July 24 ap-
proved H J Res 589 (H Rept 96-1191), containing $525.75
million for the bank for the remainder of the 1980 fiscal
year. The appropriation included $251 million in direct,
subsidized loans and $274.75 million to finance $1.1 billion
worth of loans guaranteed by the bank. The administration
supports the committee's recommendations.
Senate leaders have endorsed a different measure,
which would delay most of the bank funding until October.
The bank is in trouble because its funding was con-
tained in the now-dead 1980 foreign aid bill. The bank
as well as U.S. foreign aid agencies have been operating
since last October under a continuing spending resolution,
but that measure provided about $1 billion less than the
bank expected to receive in fiscal 1980.
Bank supporters failed to include emergency money
for the bank in the supplemental appropriations bill (HR
7542) cleared by Congress just before the July recess.
(Background, Weekly Report pp. 1956, 1854)
Bank President John L. Moore Jr. told the House
Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittee July 21
that the bank "is essentially out of money." The bank
has only $26 million in direct lending authority remaining,
and has had to defer about $2 billion worth of loan ap-
plications for aircraft and other major exports, he said.
For the combined 1980 and 1981 fiscal years, the bank
needs about $12 billion for loans, Moore said. If the bank
must operate under continuing resolutions for both years,
it would have only $8.5 billion, he added.
Foreign Aid funding
The foreign aid appropriations bill ? always one of
the most unpopular measures on Capitol Hill ? started
on the long road toward an uncertain fate July 24.
In a reversal of last year's practice, the full Appro-
priations Committee July 24 added money to the funding
recom mendat ions of its Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
When marking up the 1981 bill, the committee slashed
?By John Felton
COPYRIGHT 1980 CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC.
Rep, oducteon prolobited in whole or .n port except by ettlit000l clteett.
July 26, 1980?PAGE 2137
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/09/13: CIA-RDP11M01338R000400470014-4