Speech by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), June 30, 2000

Speech by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), June 30, 2000

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, the Senate will soon take up the FY 2001 Military Construction Conference Report. In addition to meeting the military construction needs of the nation, Divisions B & C contain emergency supplemental appropriations for FY 2000 totaling some $11.2 billion.

The supplemental portion of the bill funds a broad array of urgently needed programs. More than $6 billion is provided for the emergency needs of the military. Of that amount, some $2 billion is to cover the cost of our peacekeeping operations in Kosovo; $1.6 billion is to recover increased fuel costs to the military; and $1.3 billion is for health benefits for the military. For the victims of natural disasters, particularly those who suffered the ravages of Hurricane Floyd, some $300 million is provided. And, $350 million is provided in emergency funds to replenish the fire management accounts of the Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service. Those firefighting accounts are totally depleted and must be replenished immediately. The bill also provides $600 million in Low Income Home Energy Assistance grants, and more than $600 million is provided to address the costs related to the disastrous fire at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

One of the biggest pieces of the supplemental package is $1.3 billion to fully fund the President's request in support of Plan Colombia . The President's anti-drug initiative is an ambitious effort in support of Plan Colombia , a massive undertaking by the Colombian government to fight the alarming rise of heroin and cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia .

The intent of the President's aid package to Colombia is laudable; but at this point, there remain more questions than answers as to what the impact of this assistance will be. Our efforts in the past have done little, if anything, to deter Colombia's drug lords. The production of cocaine and heroin has skyrocketed. Some analysts are concerned that increased U.S. involvement in Colombia's drug wars will fuel an all-out civil war in a country already ravaged by guerrilla warfare and paramilitary abuses.

For those reasons, I am pleased that this conference report preserves a provision that I originally added in the Senate Appropriations Committee to place restrictions on future funding for U.S. assistance to Plan Colombia , and to limit the number of U.S. military personnel and U.S. civilian contractors that can be deployed in Colombia to support the counter-narcotics effort.

The Byrd provision requires the Administration to seek and receive congressional authorization before spending any money on U.S. support for Plan Colombia beyond the funding contained in this supplemental package and other relevant funding bills. The President's request for Plan Colombia is fully funded. This provision simply ensures that, if additional funding is requested to prolong or expand U.S. involvement in Colombia's anti-drug campaign, Congress will have the opportunity to review and evaluate the entire program before green-lighting more money.

The goal of my provision is to prevent an incremental and possibly unintended escalation of U.S. involvement in Colombia's war on drugs to the point that the United States, over time, finds itself entangled beyond extraction in the internal politics of Colombia . We cannot ignore the fact that Colombia is embroiled in a civil war, and that narco-guerrillas, who are better-trained, better-financed, and better-equipped than the Colombian army, control much of the country. The government of Colombia is fighting a just, but uphill battle. The United States, in this funding package, is making a major commitment to help Colombia . With the Byrd provision, we are also making a commitment to the people of the United States that Congress will stand guard against this nation's being unwittingly drawn too deeply into Colombia's internal problems.

Mr. President, this Administration has, in the past, registered strong opposition to the Byrd provision. I assure the Senate that we have listened to the concerns expressed by the Administration, and have addressed them. We doubled the cap on U.S. military personnel to 500, as requested by the Pentagon, and tripled the allowable number of U.S. civilian contractors to 300. We exempted funding for on-going counter-narcotics programs covered in other appropriations bills, as requested by the Administration. We addressed virtually every issue raised by the Administration, and I hope that the President is ready to endorse this language.

It is my opinion that the Administration should welcome the spotlight that this provision will shine on the level of U.S. participation in Plan Colombia . The Administration should also welcome the additional safeguards that this language provides to reduce the possibility of unbridled mission creep and unforeseen consequences.

There are some who have expressed concern that this language is too restrictive, and that it will impose too difficult a process to allow the United States to continue its efforts to fight drug production and drug trafficking in Colombia and throughout the region. I believe the process should be restrictive. I do not believe that U.S. assistance to Plan Colombia should be handled on a business-as-usual basis. The political situation in Colombia is too unstable, and the risks to American citizens involved in the counter-narcotics campaign are too high.

That said, my provision is not intended to slam the door on future counter-narcotics assistance to Colombia or to other countries in the region, if such assistance is needed and warranted. The war on drugs must be waged aggressively, both at home and abroad. At this point, the President has requested a specific level of funding, $1.3 billion, to finance a specific program. Congress is providing that funding in this appropriations measure. If this President, or a future President, seeks more money, or seeks to broaden or prolong U.S. involvement in Plan Colombia , we merely ask him to present that request to Congress, and to give Congress the opportunity to review, assess, and authorize the entire program. What we do not want to see is U.S. assistance to Plan Colombia quietly ramped up through regular or supplemental funding bills until we suddenly reach the point of having thousands of U.S. citizens deployed to Colombia , and billions of U.S. tax dollars invested in Colombia's drug war, and no way to extricate the United States from Colombia .

Mr. President, Congress has a responsibility to exercise oversight over programs such as U.S. participation in Plan Colombia . This provision ensures that we will have the opportunity to exercise that oversight, and to make an informed and deliberate decision on future funding for Plan Colombia . It is a wise precaution to include in a package that will underwrite a costly, complicated, and unprecedented assault on a dangerous and determined enemy.

As of July 18, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S30JN0-436: