Congress Voices Independence on Selected Terrorism Issues (updated)

By Andrew Cochran

Several votes in the past week in Congress indicate that Members are becoming more independent on selected terrorism issues, especially with respect to Libya and Iran.

Yesterday, Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) successfully amended the FY 2007 appropriations bill for the State Department and other agencies to add language halting funding of normal relations with Libya, until Libya pays the entire settlement commitment of $10,000,000 to the surviving families of each decedent of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing and promises to resolve outstanding terrorism cases. In 2002, Libya agreed to pay each family, but only 80 percent of that commitment was met prior to Libya's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism on May 15. In a press release, Rep. Sweeney said, "The State Department should not fully establish diplomatic ties and all of the privileges that go along with that status until payment is complete and I am pleased that the committee agreed to take this important step.”

Rep. Sweeney didn't announce his amendment to the world before the vote. Had he done so, he might have met the same fate as his fellow Republlican, Sen. Rick Santorum (PA). Last week, Sen. Santorum thought he had the votes to attach a measuring imposing sanctions on Iran to a defense bill, but the State Department allied with an unusual bipartisan coalition to kill it. Sen. Santorum had 61 co-sponsors for his bill, but a last-minute letter from State (Acrobat file) turned Senators against him, at least for the time being. Considering that Iran continues to fund terrorist groups and build nuclear weapons capability while not responding to negotiation offers, many Senators might want to revisit the Santorum bill sooner rather than later.

Another bill which failed in the House would have forced lobbyists for state sponsors of terrorism to disclose their contacts with Congress. I don't understand why it didn't pass, and specifically why so many House Democrats voted against it. UPDATE: The bill was HR 5228, voted on just yesterday, and here is a copy (Acrobat file and tip to Richard).

Sponsored by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balert (R-FL), it would have disclosed the lobbying activities of foreign agents who lobby on behalf of countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism, namely Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. It would have required that such agents file a detailed statement with DOJ on every lobbying contact with certain legislative branch officials within 45 days of the contact, and that disclosure would have been made available to the public in an electronic format within 90 days.

The only Congressman to speak against the bill was Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who complained that (a) the bill would further hurt diplomatic relations with Cuba, and (b) the bill would raise separation of powers issues, similar to those raised in the search of Rep. Jefferson's office, by exposing Congressional schedules to the Executive Branch. In my opinion, both objections are really weak, and the second smacks of a demand for special undeserved privileges. Yet the vast majority of Democrats voted against the bill, while the vast majority of Republicans voted for it. The bill failed becausethe rules for the bill required two-thirds of the House had to vote for it, and that threshhold wasn't met.

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