SENATORS LOAD UP STATE DEPARTMENT MEASURE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP89T00234R000300330017-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2013
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: October 17, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/01/03: CIA-RDP89T00234R000300330017-1
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Foreign Policy
Senators Load Up State Department Measure
For members of Congress, few
things are more irresistible than a
chance to play secretary of state for a
day. Senators had that chance for four
days early in October, and 40 of them
took advantage of it, offering a host of
amendments to a routine bill author-
izing funds for the State Department
and related agencies.
Before passing the bill (HR 1777)
85-8 on Oct. 8, the Senate staked out a
position on virtually every foreign pol-
icy issue facing the United States, as
well as some matters over which
Washington has little influence. (Vote
315, Weekly Report p. 2490)
With the annual foreign aid au-
thorizations bill stalled and the yearly
defense bill in deep political trouble,
senators turned to the State Depart-
ment measure to vent their views on
foreign policy. Most of the 86 amend-
ments added to the bill were non-bind-
ing measures that merely stated the
"sense of the Senate." A few, however,
would force changes in U.S. policy or
would require the administration to
break longstanding agreements with
other countries. The Senate debated
the bill on Oct. 2, 6, 7 and 8.
Moments before the Senate fin-
ished the bill, Daniel J. Evans, R-
Wash., took the floor to complain that
his colleagues were "trivializing" an
important piece of legislation.
"We seem to create amendments
... by reading yesterday's headlines so
that. we can write today's amendments
so that we can garner tomorrow's
headlines," Evans said.
No one rose to defend the Sen-
ate's actions, although Foreign Rela-
tions Committee Chairman Claiborne
Pell, D-R.I., responded that "we have
to work in an imperfect world."
The bill now goes to a House-Sen-
ate conference, where many of the
Senate amendments likely will fall by
the wayside. But the Senate's most
prolific sponsor of amendments, Jesse
Helms, R-N.C., will be seated at the
conference table by virtue of his status
as ranking minority member of the
Foreign Relations Committee.
The House passed its version of
the State Department bill on June 23,
after adopting only a handful of
amendments. (Weekly Report p. 1385;
Senate bill, Weekly Report p. 1387)
The Senate authorized $3.6 billion
in fiscal 1988 for operations by the
State Department, United States In-
formation Agency and the Board for
International Broadcasting, which runs
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
The House authorized $3.9 billion in
fiscal 1988 and $4.6 billion in 1989.
President Reagan had requested $4.25
billion in fiscal 1988 for those agencies.
State Department officials and ad-
ministration supporters complained
that the cuts mandated by the Senate
bill will damage Washington's ability
to carry out foreign policy. Hours be-
fore the Senate passed the bill, State
Department officials released plans to
eliminate some 1,300 jobs, nearly 8 per-
cent of its total Foreign Service and
Civil Service positions. Specific cuts in-
clude the closing of two dozen small
embassies and consulates.
Pell said he agreed that the State
Department faces damaging cutbacks,
but noted that under the Gramm-Rud-
man-Hollings deficit-control law Con-
gress had to make "tough choices." In
writing the bill, Pell said, the commit-
tee gave priority to ongoing State De-
"We seem to create amendments
... by reading yesterday's head-
lines so that we can write today's
amendments so that we can
garner tomorrow's headlines."
-Sen. Daniel J. Evans, at right
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Rep.od..ttion proh.bned .n whok or in pen euept by etLt i 1,,,
partment operations and deferred sev-
eral construction programs.
While cutting back on the overall
State Department budget, the Senate
demanded several expenditures that
could restrict the department's fiscal
running room even further. The Senate
opposed the department plan to save
money by closing overseas consulates,
and it voted to create several new high-
level positions, including an under sec-
retary of state for security, construc-
tion and foreign missions, and an
ambassador-at-large for Afghanistan.
Dumping on the Soviets
As in the House debate three
months before, much of the Senate's
action on the State Department bill
centered around U.S. relations with
the Soviet Union. The anti-Soviet
rhetoric did not appear to be dimmed
by the prospect of a summit meeting
this fall between Reagan and Soviet
leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
Indeed, conservatives used debate
on the bill to voice their frustrations
over the administration's determina-
tion to sign an intermediate-range mis-
sile arms-control treaty in spite of what
the conservatives insisted is a long his-
tory of Soviet treaty violations.
The attack on the Soviet Union
"We have to work in an
imperfect world. "
-Sen. Claiborne Pell
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/01/03: CIA-RDP89T00234R000300330017-1
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/01/03: CIA-RDP89T00234R000300330017-1
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foreign Policy - 2
began within minutes of the opening
of Senate debate on the bill on Oct. 2.
Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., offered an
amendment condemning the Soviet
Union for conducting missile tests in
the Pacific Ocean, and demanding a
Soviet apology. Two dummy warheads
landed within a few hundred miles of
the Hawaiian Islands.
Wallop called the Soviet tests "a
deliberate provocation of the United
States and a direct threat to our na-
tional security."
Helms, a close ally of Wallop,
then offered a second-degree amend-
ment that sought to undo two arms-
control amendments that the Senate
had attached only days before to the
Defense Department authorization
bill (HR 1748). Helms' amendment, in
effect, would have allowed the presi-
dent to proceed with all his planned
strategic weapons programs - includ-
ing the strategic defense initiative, or
"star wars" - as long as he certified
that the Soviet Union is violating pre-
vious arms control treaties with the
United States. (Defense bill, Weekly
Report p. 2228)
The Senate tabled the Helms
amendment on Oct. 6 by a 52-43 vote,
and then adopted a revised version of
the underlying Wallop amendment
96-0. As passed, the amendment called
on the administration to protest the
Soviet tests and demanded that the
president report to Congress on the
details of the tests and the Soviet ex-
planations for them. (Votes 302-303,
Weekly Report p. 2488)
Among other amendments di-
rected at the Soviet Union and its al-
lies, the Senate:
? Reaffirmed its position that the
administration should abrogate exist-
ing agreements under which the
United States and the Soviets have
been building new embassies in each
other's capitals.
By voice vote, the Senate adopted
an amendment sponsored by Steve
Symms, R.-Idaho, requiring the presi-
dent to void 1969 and 1972 U.S.-Soviet
accords and to begin new negotiations
aimed at forcing the Soviets to build a
new embassy in Washington located no
more than 90 feet above sea level.
U.S. intelligence officials have
complained that the still-unfinished
Soviet Embassy office building, lo-
cated on Washington's highest hill at
nearly 350 feet above sea level, will
permit the interception of electronic
communications from the Pentagon,
State Department and other sensitive
agencies. In addition, recent tests have
found that the new Soviet-built U.S.
Embassy in Moscow is riddled with
listening devices. (Weekly Report p.
1427)
The Senate already had adopted
the Symms amendment as part of the
defense authorization bill, but that
measure may never become law.
? Required the administration to
apply to Soviet-bloc diplomats in the
United States the same travel restric-
tions that already are applied to diplo-
mats and trade officials from the So-
viet Union.
The most important restriction
bars those diplomats from traveling
more than 25 miles from their offices
without obtaining permission from the
State Department. The amendment
was sponsored by William V. Roth Jr.,
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