Speech by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), October 24, 2001

Speech by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), October 24, 2001
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the committee funded the President's $731 million request for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative at $567 million, which is a cut of $164 million. This figure reflects an attempt by the subcommittee to balance the interest of Congress and the President over such issues as restoring the administration's 25 percent or $119 million cut in the export-import pact funding.

Senator Graham's amendment seeks to restore that $164 million to this initiative. I think he knows this is going to be an issue for the conference, as Senator Leahy pointed out, because the House funding level is $675 million. While I can appreciate his arguments for funding the Andean initiative, it is clear from a hearing Senator Leahy and I held on this issue earlier this year that there are Members who are concerned with Plan Colombia and the ability of the United States to impact narcotics growth and production in the civil war zones. Reducing funds for the Andean Counterdrug Initiative will not starve our counterdrug efforts. The disbursement of funds from last year's Plan Colombia is occurring, frankly, at a rather slow pace. Figures from USAID show that of the $119 million provided for judicial, economic, and other reforms, only $8 million has been actually spent to date.

So Senator Leahy and I included an amendment in the managers' package to ensure adequate levels of funding for counterdrug assistance for Bolivia and Ecuador.

As of October 25, 2001, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r107:@FIELD(FLD003+s)+@FIELD(DDATE+20011024)