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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.


Africa: Urgent Action on Aid
Any links to other sites in this file from 1995 are not clickable,
given the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files.
However, we hope they may still provide leads for your research.
Africa: Urgent Action on Aid
Date Distributed (ymd): 950927

Washington Office on Africa
URGENT ACTION

House, Senate Conferees Meet to Decide Africa Aid

September 27, 1995

Calls and faxes to members of the House and Senate Foreign
Operations Subcommittee are urgently needed to safeguard
U.S. FY 1996 assistance to Africa.

Members are likely to begin meeting tonight or tomorrow to
develop a consolidated foreign operations bill that will
include direct assistance to Africa and funding to aid
agencies and multilateral programs from which Africa
benefits.

Background

The House Foreign Operations Appropriation Act (H.R. 1868)
contains only $528 million for the Development Fund for
Africa (DFA) and $11.5 million for the African Development
Foundation. The DFA, currently funded at $802 million,
assures that aid to Africa supports sustainable development
and poverty alleviation projects. The ADF, currently funded
at $17 million, supports small grassroots development
efforts.

The Senate Foreign Operations Appropriation Act (S. 961)
contains higher amounts of assistance--$672 million for the
DFA and $14 million for the ADF--but neither DFA nor ADF
are allocated as separate accounts. The absence of this
separate status means that both become susceptible to
policy shifts away from sustainable development and to
further reductions by the administration.

Action

Please call or fax a letter to the chairs of both
subcommittees, and to your own Member of Congress if their
name appears on the list below. Urge members to include
the following in the consolidated bill.

* Maintain the Development Fund for Africa ($672 million)
and the African Development Foundation ($14 million) as
separate accounts funded at the Senate levels.

* Maintain funding for the concessionary loan component of
the World Bank, International Development Association ($775
million).

Senate Conferees

Name * Phone * Fax * Religion * Key Staff Person

Mitch McConnell (R-KY) * 224-2541 * 224-2499 * Baptist
     * Robin Cleveland

Arlen Specter (R-PA) * 224-4254 * Jewish * Paul Wolfe

Connie Mack (R-FL) * 224-5274 * Catholic * Ellen Bork

Phil Gramm (R-TX) * 224-2934 * 228-2856 * Episcopalian
     * Mike  Champness

James Jeffords (R-VT) * 224-5141 * 228-1182 * Congregational
     * Laurie Heim

Judd Gregg (R-NH) * 224-3324 * 224-4952 * Congregational
     * Vas  Alexopoulus

Richard Shelby (R-AL) * 224-5744 * 224-3416 * Presbyterian
     * Terry Lynch

Patrick Leahy (D-VT) * 224-4242 * Catholic * Tim  Reiser

Daniel Inouye (D-HA) * 224-3934 * 224-6747 * Methodist
     * Keith  Gouveia

Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) * 224-4744 * 224-9707 * Jewish
     *  Sharon  Waxman

Tom Harkin (D-IA) * 224-3254 * 224-9369 * Catholic
     * Joe Biegner

Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) * 224-4654 * 224-8858 * Catholic
     * Julia Frifield

Patty Murray (D-WA) * 224-2621 * 224-0238 * Catholic
     * Pam Norick

Mark Hatfield (R-OR) * 224-3753 * Baptist * Karen Mattson

Robert Byrd (D-WV) * 224-3954 * 224-8070 * Baptist
     * Debra  Wood

House Conferees

Sonny Callahan (R-AL,1) * 225-4931 * 225-0562 * Catholic
     * Nancy Tippings

John Porter (R-IL) * 225-4835 * n.a. * Presbyterian
     * Rob  Gustafson

Bob Livingston (R-LA) * 225-3015 * 225-0739 * Episcopalian
     * Tripp Funderburk

Jim Lightfoot (R-IA) * 225-3806 * 225-6937 * Catholic
     * Adam  Sullivan

Frank Wolf (R-VA) * 225-5136 * 225-0437 * Presbyterian
     * Anne Campbell

Ron Packard (R-CA) * 225-3906 * 225-0134 * Mormon
     * Chris Peace

Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) * 225-5802 * 225-2356 * Catholic
     * Martha  Harrison

Michael Forbes (R-NY) * 225-3826 * 225-3143 * Catholic
     * Jim Doran

Jim Bunn (R-OR) * 225-5711 * 225-2994 * Nazarene
     * Jerome Hartl

Charles Wilson (D-TX) * 225-2401 * 225-1764 * Methodist
     * Kathleen  Murphy

Sidney Yates (D-IL) * 225-2111 * 225-3493 * Jewish
     * Steve  Marchese

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) * 225-4965 * 225-8259 * Catholic
     * Carolyn  Bartholomew

Esteban Torres (D-CA) * 225-5256 * 225-9711 * Unaffiliated
     * Nancy Alcalde

David Obey(D-WI) * 225-3365 * n.a. * Catholic * Joseph Crapa


SAMPLE LETTER

September 27, 1995

Dear Foreign Operations Appropriations Conferee:

As you meet to reconcile the differences between H.R. 1868
and S. 961  the Washington Office on Africa offers the
following recommendations for your  consideration:

1)   Maintain the Senate development assistance funding
level and its  proportional approach to reducing specific
accounts.

2)   Retain the House identification of the African
Development  Foundation and the Development Fund for Africa
as separate accounts.  These  agencies were originally
initiated to protect a specific amount of funding and
organizational integrity separate from the State Department
short-term political priorities and  focussed on long-term
sustainable development for the poorest of the poor and
developing countries in Africa.  The need for such emphasis
has not diminished or  changed.  In fact, in light of the
severe reductions in development assistance in general  and
or Africa in particular, it is even more important that we
maintain those  targeted agency structures.

3)   Maintain the Senate level funding for the multilateral
banking  and development agencies. Support for multilateral
approaches is one of the best  investments the U.S.
government can make.  These leveraged contributions mean
that  every dollar goes much further toward implementing the
international goals of  sustainable development and
humanitarian assistance.  The International Development
Association (IDA) of the World Bank is especially important
to Africa.  Without these  resources, many African countries
would have no other option for credit for essential
development projects.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dan Hoffman  President of the Board, Washington Office on
Africa; Director, Africa Office, Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ)

*******************************************************
This material is made available by the Washington
Office on Africa (WOA).  WOA is a not-for-profit
church, trade union and civil rights group supported
organization that works with Congress on Africa-related
legislation.

*******************************************************


URL for this file: http://www.africafocus.org/docs95/aid9509.act.php