ACCESSION
NUMBER:346102
FILE ID:POL307
DATE:05/25/94
TITLE:CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 (05/25/94)
TEXT:*94052507.POL
CONGRESSIONAL REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25
(Treaty/Nominations, Haiti, Brown, Intelligence) (730)
PANEL RECOMMENDS TREATY AND FOREIGN POLICY NOMINEES
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended May 25 that the full
Senate approve an important international treaty on racial discrimination
and that it pass a special bill regarding Taiwan.
It also recommended that the Senate confirm several of President Clinton's
foreign policymaking nominees.
The committee recommended that the Senate consent to ratification of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. The Clinton administration had strongly urged the Senate
to vote the two-thirds majority needed to permit the president to commit
the United States to the pact.
Committee members recommended Senate Joint Resolution 148, expressing the
sense of the Senate that the United Nations should be encouraged to grant
full participation to Taiwan.
They also recommended David Birenbaum to be U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations for management reform, Sally Shelton to be an assistant
administrator for the Agency for International Development, Jan Piercy to
be U.S. executive director of the World Bank, Harriet Babbitt to be a
member of the board of directors of the Inter-American Foundation, and
Maria Elena Torano to be a member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public
Diplomacy.
The panel recommended Frank Wisner to be ambassador to India, Timothy Chorba
to be ambassador to Singapore, and Joseph Paolino Jr. to be ambassador to
Malta.
HOUSE BACKS HAITIAN REFUGEE SAFE HAVEN
A narrow majority of legislators in the House of Representatives has voted
to support the idea of a safe haven for Haitian refugees on the Haitian
island of Ile de la Gonave.
1
The House on May 24 adopted by a vote of 223-201 an amendment to the fiscal
1995 defense authorization bill that urges the Clinton administration, in
cooperation with the Organization of American States, to establish the safe
haven.
The vote came on the same day that stronger United Nations trade sanctions
against Haiti went into effect in an attempt to force out the military
rulers and return the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, to power.
SENATE AGAIN FAILS TO BREAK FILIBUSTER ON BROWN NOMINATION
The Senate May 25 for the second consecutive day failed to get the 60 votes
needed to break a filibuster against the nomination of Sam Brown to be U.S.
ambassador to lead a U.S. delegation to the Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).
The vote on the second attempt at cloture to cut off debate was 56-42. The
first cloture vote May 24 was 54-44.
A Senate staffer said it is now up to the Senate majority leader when to
schedule another attempt at cloture. The Brown nomination, the staffer
said, remains pending on the executive calendar of the Senate.
The staffer said Brown appears to have enough support to be approved if a
three-fifths Senate vote on cloture can be obtained.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Claiborne Pell, who supports the
nomination, said the Senate was only being asked to assign the title of
ambassador to Brown while he negotiates the conventional forces treaty.
Whether the title is conferred or not, Brown will be the negotiator, Pell
said.
COUNTERESPIONAGE BILL GAINS IN SENATE INTELLIGENCE PANEL
The Senate Intelligence Committee, by a 16-0 vote May 24, approved
legislation to better coordinate efforts by federal agencies to detect and
prevent acts of espionage against the United States.
The bill includes a provision, similar to one embodied in a presidential
directive issued by President Clinton on May 3, that would require the
president to create a National Counterintelligence Policy Board comprised
of the heads of various agencies with counterintelligence responsibilities,
including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Department and the National Security
Council.
The bill also provides greater access to the financial and credit records of
individuals with access to classified information.
However, panel chairman Dennis DeConcini said the bill will not move to the
House floor until the Clinton administration and the committee agree on
when the FBI should be informed of information that raises suspicions of
espionage activities.
The legislation is a result of concerns about the nation's
counterintelligence system raised by the arrest of longtime CIA official
Aldrich Ames on charges of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia.
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