Summary of the contents of the aid package
A quick overview of aid numbers, human rights and other conditions, and reporting requirements in the final version of the Colombia aid package.

See also the State Department's July 27 report to Congress on the proposed uses of all funds.

• The final version of the aid law: Conference Report 106-701, from the House-Senate conference committee, June 29, 2000 (The committee's narrative report, with specific funding amounts, is available only in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format)
  Changes made include:
  • A different mix of helicopters: 18 UH-60 "Blackhawk" helicopters and 42 UH-1H "Huey" helicopters. Twelve of the Hueys are for the Colombian National Police.
    
  • A combination of the House and Senate human rights conditions, but with a waiver allowing the Secretary of State to skip the human rights certification if doing so is in the "national security interest."
    
  • Cuts in funding for alternative development and aid for displaced persons.
    
  • Removal of the Senate's environmental conditions on herbicides.
    
  • Removal of a House provision increasing funding for internally displaced persons.
    
    

• The Senate's version: S. 2522, Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2001 , June 22, 2000; and S. 2521, Military Construction Appropriations Act, 2001.
  
  The Senate's final version is nearly identical to the package drafted earlier by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which met on May 9 to consider its version of the proposed Colombia aid package. The package took the form of amendments to two appropriations bills: about 90 percent of the new funding was attached to the Foreign Operations appropriation, and the remainder was added to the Military Construction appropriation.

  The Senate committee's draft funding bill differed in several important ways from the Clinton Administration's original aid request and the legislation the House of Representatives passed in March. Key differences included:

  • The thirty UH-60 "Blackhawk" helicopters foreseen in earlier versions were removed, and replaced with much cheaper upgrades to UH-1H "Super Huey" helicopters.
    
  • Several other military aid categories are reduced by removing funding for their second year.
  • Funding for human rights protections and institutions more than triples.
    
  • Strong human rights conditions are added to the military and police assistance.
    
  • Numerous reporting requirements are added.
  Excerpts from Senate Appropriations committee report 106-291, May 11, 2000 [Link to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version]
  
  Excerpts from Senate Appropriations committee report 106-290, May 11, 2000 [Link to Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version]
  
  Read a summary of the Senate floor debate, with links to speeches, and a table of key votes affecting the Colombia package.
  
  
• The House of Representatives' version: H.R. 3908, 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, March 30, 2000
  The full House of Representatives made three small changes to the version approved earlier by the House Appropriations Committee:
  • Human rights and other conditions on the military aid, which can be waived if "extraordinary circumstances" apply;
  • A requirement that at least $50 million of the aid package be used to assist displaced persons in Colombia (the administration's proposal foresaw $39.5 million in such assistance, including aid to people to be displaced by U.S.-funded military operations).
  • A requirement that funds in the bill cannot be used to keep more than 300 U.S. military personnel in Colombia at any given time.

  Read a summary of the House floor debate, with links to speeches, and a table of key votes affecting the Colombia package.

• The House Appropriations Committee's version: H.R. 3908, 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act , March 9, 2000
  The House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the aid proposal on March 9, 2000, making few changes to the administration's original package. It was reported in the full House of Represenatives as H.R. 3908 on March 14.
  
  House Appropriations Committee report 106-521
  
  Summary table [Web (.html) format, 66KB | Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 13KB| Microsoft Excel (.xls) format, 63KB]
  
  

• The Clinton Administration's original aid proposal, January 11, 2000
  Summary table [Web (.html) format, 114KB| Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 21KB | Microsoft Excel (.xls) format, 42KB]

• Plan Colombia, The Colombian government document said to form the basis for the U.S. aid package. This copy was obtained from the Colombian Embassy to the United States in October 1999.
  • [Web (.html) format, 130KB| Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 105KB]
  • En Español
    
    
  • "Plan Colombia: Institutional Action Plan," a Colombian government "slideshow" document obtained in September 2000. [Mostly English, with some Spanish] [Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 170KB | Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt) format, 208KB]
    
    
• The "original" Plan Colombia
  (No mention of military aid)
• [In Spanish] Plan Colombia, published in May 1999
• [In Spanish] A "slideshow" document of Plan Colombia dated October 22, 1998. [Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, 111KB | Microsoft Powerpoint (.ppt) format, 350KB]
  
  
• Alliance with Colombia and the Andean Region (ALIANZA) Act of 1999 (S. 1758), Introduced in the Senate by Sens. Mike Dewine and Paul Coverdell, October 20, 1999.
  
  
• White House Office of National Drug Control Policy discussion paper: Western Hemisphere counterdrug program enhancements, July 13, 1999. ("Drug Czar" Barry McCaffrey's original military assistance proposal, the first time a U.S. official suggested aid levels of $1 billon.)