[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13586-13587]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATIONS BILL AND U.S. CAUCASUS POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in the other body, the Senate, 
the Appropriations Committee, marked up the foreign operation 
appropriations legislation for fiscal year 2000. The legislation 
reported out yesterday addresses several key issues concerning U.S. 
policies and priorities for the Caucasus Mountain region of the former 
Soviet Union, an area of vital and growing importance for the U.S. in 
the 21st century.
  Here in the House, action on the foreign operations bill is not 
expected until later this summer. I wanted to take a few minutes to 
cite some of the key provisions in the Senate legislation that I hope 
the House will address, as well as to cite some additional areas where 
the Senate did not act, but I hope the House will.
  As cochair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, I plan to 
put my suggestions into a letter to the House Subcommittee on Foreign 
Operations, and that subcommittee, I should point out, has many good 
friends of Armenia, and I look forward to working with them.
  First, the good news, Mr. Speaker. The Senate Foreign Operations bill 
earmarks $90 million in assistance to the Republic of Armenia. This 
represents an increase over the slightly less than $80 million that was 
reported in fiscal year 1999, and is certainly an improvement over the 
$71.5 million requested by the administration in its budget. I believe 
it is important for the United States to maintain our support and 
partnership with Armenia, which continues to make major strides towards 
democracy, as evidenced by last month's parliamentary elections, as 
well as market reforms and increasing integration with the West.
  However, Armenia's strides towards providing a better life for its 
people at home and being a partner for peace and stability with the 
West continue to be challenged by the blockades imposed by the 
neighboring countries, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Provisions of U.S. 
support provides at least some relief from the difficulties imposed by 
the blockades and represents a moral statement by our country that we 
should try to offset the effects of the illegal blockades imposed on 
Armenia by its neighbors. I would urge the House subcommittee to 
provide the same $90 million earmark that has been included by the 
Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, another area where I will be working to have the House 
follow the Senate language is with regard to something that is not 
there, and that is repealing section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, 
which restricts aid to Azerbaijan until that country lifts its blockade 
of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
  Last month, Secretary of State Albright called on the Senate 
appropriators to repeal section 907. When the Freedom Support Act was 
adopted in 1992, establishing our post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy for 
the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet empire, section 907 
was included as a way of holding Azerbaijan accountable for the 
blockade of its neighbors. Azerbaijan has continued its strategy of 
trying to strangle Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. I am glad the Senate 
appropriators resisted the administration's proposal to lift section 
907.
  As I just indicated, Azerbaijan's blockade is against both the 
Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh. Nagorno 
Karabagh is an historically Armenian-populated region that Stalin's 
mapmakers included as part of Azerbaijan. Because Nagorno Karabagh's 
independence has not been officially recognized by the United States, 
it was a tremendous breakthrough when Congress approved $12.5 million 
in assistance for Nagorno Karabagh in the fiscal year 1998 legislation. 
Unfortunately, much of that assistance has yet to be obligated, and

[[Page 13587]]

while the Senate is silent on this issue, I will be working with my 
Armenia issues caucus colleagues to ensure the House bill also provides 
report language directing the Agency for International Development to 
expedite delivery of this assistance.
  Another area where the Senate bill is silent is on the issue of the 
peace process for Nagorna Karabagh. The U.S. has been one of the 
countries taking the lead in the peace process under the auspices of 
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And late last 
year, the U.S. and our negotiating partners put forward a proposal 
known as the Common State Proposal as a basis for moving the 
negotiations forward. Despite some serious reservations, the elected 
governments of both Nagorno Karabagh and Armenia have accepted this 
Common State Proposal to get the negotiations moving forward, but 
Azerbaijan has flatly rejected our peace proposal.
  I will work, Mr. Speaker, to include language in the House foreign 
operations appropriations bill to urge the administration to stay the 
course in the Nagorna Karabagh peace process and not let the 
rejectionist policies of the Azerbaijan cause us to back down in the 
search for a just and lasting solution to this conflict, providing for 
the full self-determination of Nagorno Karabagh.
  I do appreciate the fact that the Senate did not buy into the 
administration's inexplicable proposal to increase aid to Azerbaijan 
and decrease aid to Armenia. As I indicated, the Senate language 
provides for an increase in assistance to Armenia. It does not provide 
any specific mention of aid to Azerbaijan.
  With the break-up of the Soviet Union, as the countries of the 
collapsing empire attained their independence, Azerbaijan attempted to 
militarily crush Nagorno Karabagh and drive out the Armenian 
population. But the Karabagh Armenians ultimately won their war of 
independence, and a cease-fire was signed in 1994.
  American humanitarian assistance to Azerbaijan, via Non-Governmental 
Organizations (NGOs) has not been affected by Section 907. In recent 
years, further exemptions to Section 907 have been carved out. It is 
important that, at a time when Azerbaijan continues to reject good-
faith efforts to achieve a negotiated settlement to the Nagorno 
Karabagh conflict, while illegally blockading supplies of fuel, food 
and other essential supplies to its neighbors, that we not reward this 
country with additional U.S. assistance.

                              {time}  1430

  Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with my friends on the 
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related 
Programs to craft legislation that supports Armenia.

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