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US foreign aid likely to fall further next year

Bills making their way through Congress
WASHINGTON. July 4: Already at a 50-year low. US foreign aid stands to fall even further next year if biUs currently making their way through Congress are enacted into law, says IPS.
As in the past, much of the decline will hit the world's poorest countries hardest proposals by President Bill Clinton to fund substantial debt reduction for the world's poorest and most heavily indebted countries have been rebuffed, while contributions to multilateral agencies which provide concessional loans and grants are also being cut.
In addition, the Republican-led Congress appears determined to limit US contributions to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs). by withholding money for specific PKOs. almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
"This looks to be another truly dismal year on the foreign
aid front." sighed one Congressional aide who noted that total US foreign aid per capita has been the lowest among all western industrialised countries for several years now.
US foreign aid is largely provided through two separate pieces of legislation: a Foreign Operations bill which covers most traditional aid programmes. and another bill which covers the State Department budget and assessments to the United Nations and its PKOs.
The picture so far appears pretty clear, however. Congress is likely to approve no more than 13.4 billion dollars for the 2001 Foreign Operations bill, about 1.7 Dillion dollars less than the amount requested by the Clinton administration, or some two per cent below current aid levels.
That calculation does not include some 1.3 billion dollars in supplemental 2000 funding in military and anti-drug aid
for Colombia and its Andean neighbours which will be sent to Clinton for signature.
Senior administration officials have already suggested that Clinton will veto the 2001 foreign aid bill if certain accounts. notably debt reduction for the poorest countries, are not increased. Such a deadlock has worked well for Clinton In the past two sears when he suc cessfully negotiated major increases in aid from the tightfisted Republican leadership just before the annual adjournment.
Last year, for example, he wrested some 2.6 billion dollars more in foreign aid including some 18 billion dollars to support the Wye river peace accord Between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) than Congress had initially approved. "His powers of persuasion should not be underestimated." said one State Department official.