[StBernard] Landrieu Requires Sec. of State Rice to Report on Disaster Aid

[Westley Annis]

Landrieu Requires Sec. of State Rice to Report on Disaster Aid Also secures
pro-adoption language in 

State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

 

WASHINGTON - The Senate Appropriations Committee today passed the
State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, including language inserted by
U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., a committee member, to require
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to provide Congress within 30 days after
enactment a status report on the department's reforms for accepting foreign
aid following domestic disasters. The department rejected nearly $1 billion
in foreign aid offered following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"The State Department must have mechanisms in place to accept foreign aid
following domestic disasters, be they natural or manmade," said Sen.
Landrieu, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Disaster Recovery Subcommittee. "Secretary Rice has not given Congress any
status update since we in April learned that the State Department turned
away desperately needed disaster recovery money from other nations. This
legislation requires accountability from the administration so that in the
future, we are better prepared to direct resources to disaster victims on
the ground."

The language directs Secretary Rice to report on the implementation of nine
recommendations included in the Bush Administration's February 2006 report,
"The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned." The White
House report had originally set a June 31, 2006, deadline for
implementation, but little progress to date has been reported.

Sens. Landrieu, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., D-Del., and Patrick Leahy, D-Lt. wrote
a letter to Secretary Rice on June 14 asking for a status report by June 28,
2007. Secretary Rice has not heeded this request, prompting Sens. Landrieu
and Leahy to secure the language in the State-Foreign Operations
Appropriations bill. Sen. Leahy is Chairman of the Senate Appropriations
State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee and Sen. Biden
is Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

On April 29, the Washington Post reported that the United States turned down
$854 million in offers of foreign assistance from 151 countries following
the 2005 hurricanes and the devastating failure of the federal levee system.
According to the article, only $126.4 was accepted.

Sen. Landrieu also included language in the  bill for Secretary Rice to
submit a report within 30 days after enactment on the State Department's
progress and expected day of ratifying the Hague Convention on Protection of
Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.

"The Hague Convention provides a framework for countries to work together to
ensure that the adoption process respects the interests of children and
prevents the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children," Sen. Landrieu
said. "The Convention's reforms will create a uniform adoption system
between countries that will ensure more children find loving homes." 

The Convention establishes uniform standards and procedures to protect the
rights of adopted children, birth parents and adoptive parents for
intercountry adoptions. In 1994, the United States signed the Convention and
in 2000, Congress passed the Intercountry Adoption Act, but the United
States still has not ratified the Convention.

Sen. Landrieu also secured $3 million, as she has done since 2006, for
foreign governments to prevent child abandonment. It provides homes for
orphans, displaced and abandoned children through family reunification,
guardianship and domestic adoptions. 

"This funding will help abandoned children remain in the care of their own
families and to stay in their countries of origin," Sen. Landrieu said.

Sen. Landrieu again worked to secure $75 million in the bill to address the
needs of Afghan women and girls and direct funds for grants to support
training and equipment to improve the capacity of women-led Afghan
nongovernmental organizations. In previous years, $50 million was
appropriated. 

To ensure previously appropriated funds were properly spent, Sen. Landrieu
included oversight language on money appropriated since 2002 for Afghan
women and girls. The language directs the Director of Foreign Assistance
(DFA) to submit a report by May 1, 2008, on the uses and impacts of the
funds, including healthcare, education and training, protection and
women-led organizations. The provision also directs the DFA to provide new
policies that recognize their growing and unique needs and vulnerabilities
of Afghan women and girls.

 

- 30 -