The State Department is about to ask Congress to increase funding for resettling refugees by $100 million, Secretary of State James Baker told Congress on Tuesday.
But a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget said Baker’s announcement, made during a hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, was premature.
Foggy Bottom also was caught off guard by Baker’s revelation, with State Department refugee affairs spokeswoman Sheppy Abramowitz having no initial reaction.
OMB spokeswoman Barbara Clay said such a request will soon be made as part of a supplemental aid request for the current 1990 fiscal year, which will cover other areas of government spending.
The revelation comes just two weeks after a bill was introduced in Congress by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert Kasten (R-Wis.) to increase U.S. funding by the same $100,000 amount.
The measure, if approved, also would double the U.S. quota for Soviet refugees this fiscal year from 25,000 to 50,000.
Baker said he thought the State Department had notified Congress within the previous three days about the request. But Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), the subcommittee chairman, told the secretary of state that was the first time he had heard about it.
TALKS WITH PLO MAY BE NECESSARY
The Bush administration is under pressure to raise the refugee quota and seek additional funds from Congress, in order to accommodate the thousands of Jews and others pouring out of the Soviet Union.
Last year, some 19,000 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union, a 10-year high. This year, administration officials and Soviet Jewry groups say, the total could be double that.
Baker was also asked whether he now favors a waiver of Jackson-Vanik Amendment sanctions against the Soviet Union. The amendment denies most-favored-nation trade status to Communist countries that, in the U.S. view, do not have satisfactory emigration policies.
The secretary of state praised the Kremlin for a “significant improvement” in its emigration policy. But he told Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.) that “more needs to be done” by the Soviet Union before a waiver is granted.
He called for Soviet “institutionalization of some of the reforms that have been accomplished on an ad hoc basis.”
On the Middle East, Baker said it may be necessary for Israel to talk to the Palestine Liberation Organization to achieve peace. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has vowed such talks will never take place.
Asked by Rep. Matthew McHugh (D-N.Y.) if there are credible Palestinians outside the PLO with whom Israel can negotiate, Baker responded, “That remains to be seen.” He added, “Several years ago perhaps there would have been.”
If it is clear that the PLO is in a better position to negotiate, Baker said, “then that’s the way we ought to go.”
He reiterated the administration’s opposition to an independent Palestinian state, saying such a state would “not be a source of stability.” But he said the administration would not oppose one if it were the result of Israel-Palestinian negotiations.
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