[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 140 (Monday, October 30, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  GAO INVESTIGATION OF ADMINISTRATION'S POLICY TOWARD UN PEACEKEEPING 
                OPERATIONS, INTRODUCTION OF H. RES. 664

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 30, 2000

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a resolution, H. Res. 
664, expressing the sense of the House regarding the Clinton 
Administration's lack of cooperation and efforts to impede the ongoing 
investigation by the General Accounting Office into the implementation 
of United States policy toward United Nations peacekeeping operations.
  Since March of this year, the GAO has been attempting to provide the 
Congress with its report on the Administration's Peacekeeping Policy 
Blueprint, examining how the Administration has applied its 
Presidential Decision Directive 25 policy blueprint for four key UN 
peacekeeping operations, including those in East Imor, Kosovo, Sierra 
Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  The International Relations Committee was briefed on two occasions 
this month by the GAO Deputy Comptroller General, Mr. Henry Hinton, on 
the status of the General Accounting Office study on the process 
whereby the U.S. approves U.N. and other multilateral Peace Operations 
and provides timely and relevant information to Congress concerning 
their implementation.
  This report was requested late last year by this Committee on a 
bipartisan basis and follows a number of similar GAO reports on 
peacekeeping-related topics conducted over the past several years on a 
timely basis and with the cooperation of the Administration.
  It is my understanding that the GAO still lacks access to some 26 key 
documents as well as full and independent access to agency records 
needed to complete its work. Furthermore, during the course of this 
investigation, its access to key documents has been restricted, delayed 
or sometimes denied in a way that would appear designed to undercut its 
objectives. With no independent access to records, the GAO feels that 
the integrity and reliability of its work has been compromised.
  The GAO investigators have produced an extensive summary of their 
communications with the Administration which is now publicly available.
  While the work of the GAO in this area is not yet complete, it is 
becoming clear that the Administration--particularly the State 
Department--has yet to take a cooperative attitude toward the 
completion of this peacekeeping review by the GAO investigators.
  In short, we are still waiting for a full explanation of what went 
wrong in the course of the Department's response to this investigation, 
and we are hopeful that key Department officials will meet with the 
members of our Committee later this week to review the Department's 
response to this long overdue GAO report.
  I submit the full text of H. Res. 664 to be included in the Record:

                              H. RES. 664

                               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 operation 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.

     

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