Upcoming legislation of interest:

• H.R. 1594, the "Foreign Military Training Responsibility Act," introduced in the House on April 26 by Rep. John Joseph Moakley (D-Massachusetts) and several others, would improve reporting on U.S. training of foreign militaries, institute tracking of all trainees' subsequent careers, and set up a commission to draw up guidelines and objectives for future military training.
  • [Link to bill text at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website]
    
    
• Authorization bill: On May 16, the House passed H.R. 1646, the two-year Foreign Relations Authorization Act. [Link to bill text at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website] This bill includes five provisions relevant to U.S. policy toward Latin America:
  • A severe weakening of the annual Foreign Military Training Report, a key document for oversight of training programs (section 861);
  • A report on efforts to eliminate Colombian opium (section 203);
  • A report on the effect of Plan Colombia in Ecuador (section 211);
  • Reports on the activities of U.S. contractors in Colombia and the progress of U.S. Agency for International Development-managed programs in Colombia (section 212); and
  • Denial of U.S. visas to those who support paramilitary groups (section 236, added during the markup).

  The bill has been referred to the Senate.
  

• Appropriations bills: On April 9, the Bush Administration submitted to Congress its budget request for fiscal year 2002. This included the regular foreign aid budget request for the whole world (known as "foreign operations"); a smaller portion will also be included in the Defense Department budget request.
  
  The Bush Administration is likely to submit its "Congressional Presentation Documents" in late May. A month or two after that, both houses of Congress will write their versions of the 2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, the budget bill that will include most Colombia aid. (This will probably happen in June.) This bill is written by the Foreign Operations subcommittees of both houses' Appropriations Committees. A smaller amount of aid will appear in the Defense Appropriations bill, written by the Defense subcommittees of both houses' Appropriations Committees.
  • Link to the State Department website to read a description of the "foreign operations" request.
    
• H.R. 1591, the "Andean Region Contractor Accountability Act," introduced in the House on April 25 by Reps. Janice Schakowsky (D-Illinois), Cynthia Mckinney (D-Georgia) and Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts), would prohibit financing for private contractors to carry out military, law enforcement, armed rescue, or other related operations in the Andean region.
  • [Link to bill text at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website]
    
    
• S. 647, the "International Military Education and Training Accountability Act," introduced in the Senate on March 29 by Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) and Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island), would require reporting of subsequent human rights violations committed by foreign military personnel who were trained through the U.S. government's International Military and Training (IMET) program.
  • [Link to bill text at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website]
    
    
• S. 219, introduced in the Senate on January 30 by Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) and several others, would suspend for two years the annual drug-certification process while multilateral solutions are sought. (The bill has been placed on the Senate's calendar.) A similar bill, H.R. 841, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas).
  • [Link to bill text (Senate version | House version) at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website]
    
    
• S. 525, the "Andean Trade Preference Expansion Act," introduced in the Senate on March 13 by Sen. Bob Graham (D-Florida) and several others, would expand trade preferences for Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
  • [Link to bill text at the Library of Congress's "Thomas" website]

Recently enacted legislation:

• The "Plan Colombia" aid package