[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 664 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 664

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
Clinton Administration's lack of cooperation and efforts to impede the 
investigation by the General Accounting Office into the implementation 
 of United States policy toward United Nations peacekeeping operations.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 30, 2000

 Mr. Gilman submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                the Committee on International Relations

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                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
Clinton Administration's lack of cooperation and efforts to impede the 
investigation by the General Accounting Office into the implementation 
 of United States policy toward United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Whereas at the request of the Chairman and the ranking member of the Committee 
        on International Relations, the United States General Accounting Office 
        (GAO) initiated a review on March 23, 2000, of the executive branch's 
        application of United States policy in the approval of new or expanded 
        United Nations peacekeeping operations in East Timor, Kosovo, Sierra 
        Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
Whereas in the course of this 7-month long investigation into the Presidential 
        Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25) process, providing guidance for making 
        choices about which United Nations operations the United States will 
        support, the GAO encountered substantial problems in obtaining access to 
        records pertinent to its review;
Whereas PDD-25 directs officials to consider whether such operations serve 
        United States national interests and have timetables for the completion 
        of their mandates, clear exit strategies, integrated political and 
        military strategies, specified troop levels, and firm budget estimates;
Whereas the State Department withheld information from GAO investigators for 
        months about the existence of numerous PDD-25 documents and the GAO 
        still believes that there are additional documents in department files 
        that have a direct bearing on the investigation;
Whereas the National Security Council is in possession of 26 remaining documents 
        and memorandums which have only recently been shown to GAO investigators 
        in heavily redacted form; and
Whereas in past assignments the GAO has had access to this type of information 
        and used it to report to Congress on similar peacekeeping policy issues 
        without damaging the deliberative process on operations of the 
        government: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
after seven months of delay the Administration should stop impeding the 
investigation by the General Accounting Office into how it has applied 
its peacekeeping policy process to several ongoing United Nations 
peacekeeping operations and that the following recommendations would 
help to bring the investigation to a successful conclusion:
            (1) The President is urged to direct the Secretary of State 
        and all other relevant government officials to cooperate fully 
        with the investigation, including prompt compliance with 
        outstanding document requests and full cooperation with the 
        efforts of the Committee on International Relations to convene 
        a briefing with State Department officials on this matter.
            (2) The GAO should consider taking enforcement action 
        against the Administration for any continuing failure to 
        provide requested documents.
            (3) The Administration should provide to the GAO the full 
        text of any documents, policy papers or memorandums that it has 
        agreed to make available to any other member country of the 
        United Nations General Assembly.
            (4) The Administration should cooperate fully with the GAO 
        and with Congress in their efforts to oversee future United 
        States participation in United Nations or other multilateral 
        peacekeeping operations.
                                 <all>