HOUSE PANEL MOVES TO INCREASE AFGHAN AID

WASHINGTON - The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted to boost
funds to rebuild war-battered Afghanistan to nearly $300 million next
fiscal year as it approved a $16.55 billion foreign aid bill.

The committee agreed to increase money for Afghanistan by $65 million after
lawmakers said the Bush administration was slow in sending money the
country needs after years of war, including the U.S.-led campaign to oust
the Taliban government and root out the al Qaeda network blamed for the
Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"The United States has blatantly neglected our commitments to rebuilding
and protecting Afghanistan," said Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, top Democrat
on the Foreign Operations subcommittee.

Congress approved $255 million for Afghanistan last year, but the White
House rejected part of that aid and has not yet made a new request for
Afghan aid for next year.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the foreign aid
bill in July that included $157 million in humanitarian and reconstruction
aid for Afghanistan.

The House committee's foreign aid bill, which is $230 million above current
spending and slightly above President Bush's request, also provides $786
million for the global fight against AIDS, including $150 million for a
U.N. AIDS fund and $100 million for mother-to-child AIDS prevention that
Bush sought.

The bill also has $731 million to fight drug-traffic in Colombia and other
Andean nations that produce much of the cocaine and heroin sold in the
United States.

It reinstates International Military Education and Training funds for
Indonesia's military, which were curtailed in 1999 as Washington sought to
distance itself from the military that has been blamed for massacres in
East Timor, drug trafficking and other corruption.

Backers of fully reinstating the program to train foreign personnel in
military management and combat said it sends a positive signal to the
world's largest Muslim nation as the United States is courting allies in
the war on terrorism.