Testimony of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before The Senate Appropriations Committee on The President’s FY 2005 Supplemental Budget Request February 17, 2005
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I welcome and appreciate this opportunity to support and describe the President’s FY 2005 supplemental budget request as it relates to our diplomatic and assistance efforts.
As you know, the bulk of the $82 billion supplemental request – some $75 billion -- would go to the Department of Defense, and I know that you heard from Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday about this portion of the request. Today, I would like to address the $5.6 billion intended for urgent and essential international affairs activities and the $950 million intended for multi-agency tsunami relief efforts. I wish to emphasize to the Committee that the entire request of $82 billion -- for both military and international affairs activities -- is for spending that we believe necessary to our national security.
I also wish to underscore that the supplemental funds for international affairs activities that we are requesting are meant to cover costs we could not have anticipated in our FY 2005 Budget Request, or to help us seize new opportunities that have arisen to advance the cause of freedom and peace. This supplemental funding will ensure that we are able to respond speedily and effectively to the needs of our steadfast coalition partners in the War on Terror, to newly elected governments who seek our stabilizing assistance to move forward with reforms, and to the men, women and children swept up in humanitarian emergencies who turn to us in need.
Mr. Chairman, during the grim decades of Cold War, there was strong bipartisan consensus behind our diplomatic efforts to win over the hearts and minds of men and women around the world and tip the great scales of power toward the forces of freedom.
We and our partners in freedom are now engaged in another long-term struggle for hearts and minds against a new ideology of tyranny and terror, and it is a struggle that we must win. Defending and extending freedom in a post-September 11, 2001 world requires an equally energetic and effective application of our diplomatic assets, and equally broad-based and sustained congressional support.
The funds we are requesting in the supplemental for our political, economic and humanitarian activities will help us rise to new challenges -- and grasp new opportunities -- to build a safer, better, freer world.
Let me now highlight key elements of the supplemental request:
The historic elections in Afghanistan and Iraq were dramatic victories for the human spirit. The Iraqi and Afghan peoples have bravely set their countries on a course to democracy. The supplemental funds we are seeking will help stabilize and accelerate their democratic progress.
The $2.05 billion in international affairs funding we propose for Afghanistan would help widen the reach of the Karzai government, particularly in this critical time before the Spring parliamentary elections. The funds would go to high impact projects that could show results in the short term or complete programs funded in the prior supplemental request. The funds would also be used to address the serious narcotics situation, which threatens to undermine progress on democracy and security to date. And we are requesting funding for embassy operations and diplomatic security.
We seek approximately $265 million for democracy and governance programs. These monies would assist the government in the upcoming parliamentary elections, train parliamentarians, and support activities to strengthen the rule of law, independent media, and civil society -- and we intend to put a special emphasis on efforts to increase the participation of women in public life.
$796 million is for infrastructure rehabilitation and reconstruction to improve the lives of Afghan citizens. The monies would go to such activities as completing our commitment for roads, for building schools and health clinics and for expanding the work of our civil-military Provincial Reconstruction Teams.
$509 million would be applied to a comprehensive counter narcotics effort, with initiatives in five areas: public information, law enforcement, alternative livelihoods, interdiction and eradication. About $233 million of this funding would be to replenish resources reprogrammed earlier in the fiscal year to fund urgent counter narcotics activity.
$400 million is to accelerate efforts to provide assistance to the Afghan police so that they can increasingly assume responsibility for their nation’s security.
We must continue to build on the momentum of the October elections through our political engagement on the ground and so we also are seeking $60 million to fund increased operating and security costs of the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan.
We are requesting $1.4 billion for Iraq in international operations funding.
For our diplomatic efforts in Iraq, we are requesting $690 million to cover the extraordinary security and support costs of operating our embassy, and $658 million to construct a secure new embassy compound for our mission in Baghdad. The supplemental also would provide $24 million for security and other extraordinary operating costs for USAID, and $2.5 million would pay for the operating costs of USAID’s office of Inspector General to audit relief and reconstruction expenditures.
The supplemental request also would support key partners in freedom.
We propose $150 million for Pakistan to improve its border security and increase interoperability with the United States and coalition forces. President Bush has made a 5-year, $3 billion assistance commitment to Pakistan, and the supplemental would help us meet the full $300 million pledged for FY 2005 without having to gut other important ongoing programs.
Jordan’s political and material contributions remain critical to our efforts in Iraq. We seek $100 million in economic assistance to promote stabilizing growth in Jordan – through the expansion of job opportunities, support for educational reform and the improvement of government performance and services. We are also seeking $100 million in military assistance to bolster Jordan’s counter-terrorism and border security efforts.
All of our partners are critical to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the prosecution of the global War on Terror. We seek $400 million for support and assistance to partners that face political, financial or military hardship as a result of having contributed to coalition efforts. Half of the funding would go to military and other security assistance for key partners with troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to help them meet the extraordinary defense costs they have incurred as a result of coalition participation. The other half would go to a Global War on Terror Partners Fund for economic assistance, which we would apply on a discretionary basis to provide a timely infusion of aid that would strengthen the ability of our partners to contribute to democracy and security around the world.
Mr. Chairman, we have seen how states where chaos, corruption and cruelty reign can pose threats to their neighbors, to their regions, and to the entire world. And so we are working to strengthen our capacity to address conditions in failed, failing and post-conflict states. President Bush has charged us at the State Department with coordinating our nation’s post-conflict and stabilization efforts. We are asking for a little over $17 million in supplemental funding for start-up and personnel costs for the Department’s new Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization.
Another objective of the supplemental is to help fund our compassionate response to humanitarian emergencies.
We are proposing $701 million for tsunami relief and long-term recovery and reconstruction. This includes the initial $350 million pledge made by President Bush in December. $120 million would go to costs already incurred by USAID for its immediate response efforts. $581 million will be used to: rebuild critical infrastructure that re-energizes economies and strengthens societies; accelerate the transition of victims back into their homes and communities; provide the option of debt deferral; promote good governance and political reconciliation, and; build disaster mitigation and early warning capabilities in the region.
We also seek over $242 million to replenish funds spent and to meet emergency humanitarian needs, particularly those arising from the Darfur crisis in Sudan. The supplemental funds would provide clean water and sanitation, food, shelter and healthcare to some two million conflict-affected people in Darfur and Eastern Chad. In addition, we are seeking $100 million to support implementation of the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan that was signed on January 9. When budget decisions were made for FY 2005, the prospects for conclusion of the peace process were uncertain. Now, we must move quickly to help meet immediate unmet resource needs critical to ensuring that the peace agreement holds.
Since we submitted our FY 2005 Budget Request, the United States has strongly supported the establishment by the United Nations Security Council of peacekeeping missions for Sudan/Darfur, Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti and Burundi. The supplemental requests $780 million to pay assessed costs for these new missions. In addition, up to $55 million of this request may be made available to support an assessed or voluntary U.S. contribution to a possible Sudan War Crimes tribunal.
Supplemental funding not only can help us meet unanticipated needs in emergencies, it can also help us seize unexpected, and welcome, opportunities.
The successful Palestinian elections of January 9, and the Israeli withdrawal plan for Gaza and parts of the West Bank, have created a new climate that is propitious for movement back to the Roadmap. Both Prime Minister Sharon and President Abbas called this a time of opportunity that must not be lost. President Bush has announced an additional $350 million to help the Palestinians build infrastructure and sustain their reform process over the next two years, and $200 million is included in the supplemental.
Supplemental funding can also help us seize opportunities to translate the recent victory for democracy in Ukraine into successful governance. The new pro-Western government has reached out to us and to others for assistance, and the $60 million in supplemental funds would go to helping Ukraine’s new leaders demonstrate in advance of the March 2006 parliamentary elections that their reform policies are improving the lives of ordinary citizens.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, this time of global transformation calls for transformational diplomacy. More than ever in today’s fast-evolving international environment, America’s diplomats need to have the resources to act swiftly and effectively to avert dangers and seize opportunities to tip the global balance decisively toward freedom. The supplemental funds we are seeking will help us do just that.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you and the other distinguished Committee Members may have.
