White House wins policy battle in Congress

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MAY 20. The Clinton administration and the White House won a major foreign policy battle in Congress when Democrats and a handful of Republicans in the Senate joined hands to defeat a move that would have forced a U.S. troop pullout from Kosovo by July 2001 unless an authorisation for further funding was approved by Capitol Hill. By a vote of 53 to 47, Senators rejected a provision in a military construction spending Bill that had the Kosovo attachment.

It had been anticipated that the vote was going to be close given the sentiments on the subject. Realising that the administration was going to be pushed to the extreme, the Vice- President, Mr. Albert Gore was present to cast his vote in the event of a tie. But in the end, 15 Republicans broke ranks with the party to join 38 Democrats in giving the President, Mr. Bill Clinton his badly needed victory.

The significant aspect of the Thursday vote in the Senate was that a solid group of 40 Republicans wanted the funding cut off in Kosovo. Many in the Grand Old Party griped that the administration was getting involved in foreign operations without adequate feedback from Congress. And some of the opposition had also to do with a perception that the Europeans were not contributing their ``fair share'' of the expenditure. Several conservatives had always felt that Kosovo was essentially an European problem and needed a European solution. Despite the Republican Presidential front-runner, Mr. George Bush backing the deployment of U.S. troops in Kosovo, a majority of the Republicans have not changed their view. The Texas Governor has said that the President should not have his hands tied in the realm of foreign policy. Mr. Bush argued that the Senate provision was a ``legislative overreach'' that would restrict him if he became President. ``The Senate made the right decision,'' a spokesman for Mr. Bush said after the vote.

Although Mr.Bush appeared to be standing on the ``other side'' in the Thursday vote and against the mainstream Conservatives in the Senate, this does not mean that a future Bush administration will run into trouble in a Republican controlled Senate or for that matter under a Republican Controlled Congress. On U.S. involvement overseas, Mr. Bush has been saying all along that troop deployment is not the answer every time. And in the context of Kosovo, there is the expectation within the GOP that should Mr. Bush come to the White House, one of his first foreign policy initiatives will be to set a time-table for the U.S. troops there.

The decks have now been cleared for the real battle next week - the vote in the House of Representatives on granting Permanent Normal Trading Relations status for China.

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Section  : International
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