HOUSE COMMITTEE OKS $15.2B AID BILL

WASHINGTON -- Republicans beat back two Democratic attempts to slash funds
from the war on drugs in South America before the House Appropriations
Committee voted Tuesday night to approve spending $15.2 billion in foreign
aid next year.

The bill, which matches President Bush's overall request for foreign aid,
is up 2 percent over this year and includes $474 million to fight HIV/AIDS
overseas.

In some areas, it undercut Bush's requests. For example, the South American
anti-drug plan would get $676 million -- $55 million less than Bush sought.
Assistance for independent states of the former Soviet Union would total
$768 million -- $42 million less than this year and $40 million less than
Bush wanted.

The drug effort, which began as Plan Colombia under President Clinton and
is now called the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, was targeted twice by
Democrats, and both efforts were trounced by Republicans.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the panel's top Democrat, backed a plan to strip
all $676 million from the drug effort and used it to treat substance abuse
in America.

"I don't understand why people think it's such a hot idea to fight the drug
war a thousand miles away, but they don't want to fight it at home," Obey
said, predicting that, like the Vietnam War, the South American drug war
"is going to be a 10- or 15-year quagmire."

Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the foreign operations subcommittee,
denounced the attempt to wipe out "the whole shebang," saying, "This is a
worldwide problem. I just don't think we can solve the problem" by focusing
all the money on drug treatment in America.

Obey's amendment died with a 43-18 vote.

Separately, the committee approved a $38.5 billion measure financing the
Commerce, Justice and State departments.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, prison construction and grants
to local law enforcement agencies were among the beneficiaries of a bill
that would provide $1 billion more than this year and $600 million more
than President Bush requested.

A Clinton-era program for hiring local police officers would get a minimal
cut, while the Legal Services Corp. and payments for international
peacekeeping would get the same they are receiving this year.