HOUSE COMMITTEE OKS $15.2B AID BILL

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.