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Last
Updated:10/8/04
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| U.S.
Military and Police Aid:
2004: The "troop cap" debate
On October 8, 2004, a House-Senate Conference Committee issued its compromise version of the 2005 defense authorization bill. The final legislation grants the Bush administration's full request for a troop and contractor increase, as approved by the Senate. The "cap" is to be increased from 400 to 800 military personnel and from 400 to 600 civilian contractors.
When Congress approved the "Plan Colombia" aid package in 2000, it included a legal safeguard limiting the number of U.S. military personnel and U.S. citizen contractors who could be present in Colombia at any given time (Section 3204, title III, chapter 2 of Public Law 106-246, as amended). This “troop cap” currently limits the U.S. counter-drug presence in Colombia to 400 military personnel and 400 U.S. citizens working for private contractors. The “cap” was put in place because many concerned members of Congress – among them Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Reps. Gene Taylor (D-MS) and Ike Skelton (D-MO) – saw a lot of “growth potential” for the U.S. military commitment in Colombia. Until early 2004, officials from the State and Defense Departments gave regular assurances that they saw no need to increase the caps. This changed with the onset of "Plan Patriota," a large-scale, ongoing Colombian military offensive in longtime guerrilla strongholds that began in late 2003. "Plan Patriota" depends on logistical assistance, intelligence and advice from U.S. personnel present in Colombia. Bush administration officials began to argue during the spring of 2004 that, with "Plan Patriota" underway and U.S. involvement increasing, the caps had become burdensome. "To date the impact of the personnel cap has been small," the Southern Command's Gen. James Hill testified in March. "In the coming year, however, as the Colombian Military conducts full-scale operations across the depth of the country, the personnel cap will begin to have a deleterious effect on the mission." Hill and others asked Congress to double the military cap to 800 U.S. personnel, and to increase the contractor cap by 50 percent, to 600. The Defense Authorization Bill Though the caps have appeared in the annual foreign aid appropriations bills since 2001, the Bush Administration chose to seek the increase on a piece of budget legislation that normally moves through Congress much faster: the Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 4200), which establishes programs and spending levels for the Defense Department.
The Defense Authorization bill began in the House Armed Services Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California), sought to go beyond the administration's request and abolish the troop cap entirely. Hunter did not succeed. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi) introduced an amendment during the committee's markup (meeting to approve the draft) of the bill on May 12. Taylor's measure, which was approved by a 32-24 margin, not only put the cap back in the law, it allowed only a small increase in the U.S. military presence, to 500, and held the contractor cap at 400. (The vote was not publicly recorded.)
The full House of Representatives approved the Defense Authorization bill on May 20, with Taylor's amendment intact.
The Senate Armed Services Committee granted the Bush administration its request of 800 troops and 600 contractors. When the Defense Authorization bill went to the full Senate on June 23rd, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) introduced an amendment similar to Rep. Taylor's measure, seeking to impose a much smaller increase in the caps, to 500 military personnel and 400 contractors.
The Byrd measure failed by a largely party-line vote of 40 for and 58 against.
The House version would have allowed caps of 500 military and 400 contractors. The Senate would have allowed 800 military and 600 contractors. The final figure was determined by a House-Senate Conference Committee, made up of leading members of both houses' Armed Services Committees and charged with reconciling all differences between the two Defense bills. On October 8, 2004, the Conference Committee finished its work. The final legislation grants the Bush administration's full request for a troop and contractor increase, as approved by the Senate. The "cap" is to be increased from 400 to 800 military personnel and from 400 to 600 civilian contractors. The Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill
On July 9, while the Defense Authorization measure awaited consideration by the Conference Committee, the troop cap again became a subject of debate in the House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Committee met to mark up the Foreign Operations (foreign aid) Appropriation, the bill that had included the troop cap measure every year since 2001. Rep. Sam Farr (D-California) introduced an amendment similar to Rep. Taylor's measure, seeking to establish caps of 500 military and 400 contractors. The measure, supported by leading Democrats on the committee, failed by a voice vote. Speaking on its behalf were Rep. Farr, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-New York, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee), and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island). In opposition were Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Arizona, chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee) and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-California, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee). On July 15, Rep. Farr introduced a similar amendment to establish caps of 550 military and 400 contractors.
Rep. Farr withdrew his amendment from consideration, it did not come to a vote. |
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