HOUSE PANEL OKS FUNDS FOR DRUG WAR

Money Part Of $9 Billion Spending Bill

WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee approved emergency funding
for Colombia's fight against drugs Thursday, rejecting a Democratic push to
delay passage of the $1.7 billion drug package.

Committee members also approved $5 billion for troops in Kosovo and $2.2
billion for natural disaster relief in their first election-year battle over
what to do with the projected federal surplus.

The $9 billion spending package will likely go to the House floor by the end
of next week.

The panel struck down an effort by Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., to withhold $552
million of the Colombian anti-drug package proposed by the Clinton
administration until the 2001 budget process.

"Four or five months will make virtually no difference in the timing of this
aid," Obey said, referring to the regular budget deadline in the fall. "But
it will make all the difference in our understanding of the problem in
Colombia. Congress needs to know a whole lot more about what we're doing
before we proceed."

Obey and others argued that the United States risks a costly and decade long
involvement in Colombia and that early commitments should not be made in
haste. Colombia is embroiled in a 30-year-old civil war with Marxist rebels
who profit from the drug trade.

Opponents of Obey's proposal, including a third of the committee's
Democrats, cited a need to do something about the increasing supply of
cocaine and heroin in the United States, 80 percent of which comes from
Colombia.

"I'm not totally satisfied with this plan either," said Rep. Sonny Callahan,
R-Ala., and chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee. "It's a mile
wide and an inch deep. But fighting drugs is an emergency and we have been
called to act."

The committee also rejected a bid by Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to complement
Clinton's proposal with a $1.3 billion package to reduce drug demand in the
United States through prevention and treatment.

"Even if we eliminated every coca leaf in Latin America, we would not end
drug use in the United States," Pelosi said.

On a vote of 33-13, the committee approved the funding to train and equip
the Colombian military, strengthen human rights efforts, and to help peasant
coca growers start alternative crops. The package also added to Clinton's
proposal by including small amounts of regional aid for Bolivia, Ecuador and
Peru.

The $9 billion supplemental spending bill also includes:

*· $1.6 billion for the Pentagon's increased fuel costs caused by rising oil
prices.

*· $854 million to bolster the Defense Department's health insurance
program.

*· $40 million to help residents near the Navy firing range in Vieques,
Puerto Rico.