Poorly Informed Congress fell victim toMilosevic propaganda..
Democrats Criticize GOP on Kosovo
Thursday, 29 April 1999
W A S H I N G T O N (AP)
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL leaders accused Republicans on
Thursday of undercutting vital American interests by assaulting
President Clinton's policy on Kosovo. A Senate showdown loomed,
meanwhile, on whether to try to limit the president's war powers or
give him a freer hand.
As Republicans and Democrats battled over Clinton's job as
commander in chief, some GOP leaders were having second thoughts
about the ballooning size of an emergency spending bill to pay for
the conflict in Yugoslavia.
Key members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees
were considering shrinking similar bills they were preparing to pay
for the fighting, already roughly double the $6.05 billion Clinton
requested.
On both sides of the Capitol, Democrats were reeling from an
unexpected 213-213 vote by the House the night before that
withheld support for the NATO air campaign, now in its second
month.
House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri called it "a low
moment in foreign policy and the history of this institution." He
blamed "right-wing extremists" in the House for orchestrating the
outcome.
The vote, combined with a vote earlier in the day to require Clinton
to obtain express congressional approval before sending "ground
elements" to the conflict, sends "a muddled message at best, at worst
a very negative message," Gephardt said. Democrats said the phrase
"ground elements" was so vague that it could apply to troops already
in the region and even restrict the planned use of U.S. Apache attack
helicopters. Republicans said they meant only ground troops that
would take part in an invasion.
The vote on the air campaign caught Democratic leaders by surprise.
They had expected the largely symbolic measure to be approved,
considering it had the support of House Speaker Dennis Hastert,
R-Ill.
But other House leaders, including House GOP Whip Tom Delay,
R-Texas, worked to corral Republican opposition. Twenty-six
Democrats joined Republicans in voting against airstrikes.
On the Senate side, meanwhile, Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S.C., said: "A lot of senators are scratching their heads today
wondering how did this happen, how did they vote that way and what
can we do in the Senate to help rectify it?"
But administration allies in the Senate had problems of their own.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee was meeting Thursday to
consider an effort by a bipartisan group led by Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., and Joseph Biden, D-Del., that would authorize the
president to use "all necessary means" to bring the war to a
conclusion, including ground troops.
McCain is invoking a provision of the War Powers Act of 1973 that
guarantees a Senate floor vote next week. But Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., opposes the measure, saying it gives
Clinton too free a hand.
Republican aides said Lott planned to support a move to replace the
McCain-Biden measure with one similar to that passed by the House
requiring congressional approval for any ground offensive.
GOP Appropriations leaders were considering trimming back
spending bills Democrats claim are bloated with special-interest pet
projects.
They were under pressure from lawmakers complaining that the
measures contain too much pork-barrel spending as well as from
those unwilling to spend anything extra for an unpopular war.
House Republicans were considering shrinking or eliminating $1
billion in military construction projects they have included for U.S.
bases around the world.
Several Republicans said the Senate Appropriations Committee
chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was considering trimming his
$12 billion measure to perhaps $7 billion. Stevens refused to discuss
his plans during a brief interview.
Gephardt, at a news conference, said he found it ironic that
Republicans would vote against the air campaign and against
widening the war with ground forces - but seemed to have little
problem assembling legislation to pay for it and "putting in
everybody in town's wish list."
"It's ridiculous to jack this one way up in price," Gephardt said.
Hastert expressed doubt that Wednesday's votes would jeopardize
the bill providing money for the military operation.
"I just don't think so," the House speaker told reporters. "We'll see
what happens next week."
Meanwhile, a 10-member congressional delegation headed by Rep.
Curt Weldon, R-Pa., headed to Vienna, Austria, to meet with
members of the Russian Duma to discuss possible ways of resolving
the Balkans crisis.
"We need to be engaging Russia on Kosovo," Weldon said. Joining
him were: Reps. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.; Jim Saxton, R-N.J.; Roscoe
Bartlett, R-Md.; Don Sherwood, R-Pa.; Neil Abercrombie,
D-Hawaii; Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.; Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio;
Corrine Brown, D-Fla.; and Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt.
On the refugee question, J. Brian Atwood, administrator of the U.S.
Agency for International Development, told a Senate Commerce
subcommittee that 16,500 more refugees had arrived from Kosovo in
Macedonia and Albania over the past two days.
"It's going to be a constant crisis," he said. |
