Washington, DC — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will begin an official visit to Washington with a speech next week to the United States Senate and House of Representatives, meeting jointly. An invitation to address Congress is extended to international dignitaries only once or twice during a typical year.
The visit comes amid growing Congressional support for increased emergency funding for Liberia in this year's budget. On Wednesday, a House committee inserted U.S.$50 million for Liberia into a supplemental appropriations bill now under deliberation, but Liberia supporters are aiming to raise the amount to nearer U.S.$100 million.
Sirleaf, who has attracted worldwide attention as Africa's first elected female head of state, is scheduled to address Congress on 15 March and to meet at the White House on 21 March with the President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush. Mrs. Bush led the U.S. delegation to the Liberian presidential inauguration on 16 January, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The invitations and the effort to increase assistance reflect the belief that a democratically elected government in Liberia will promote stability and economic growth throughout the west African region. After more than two decades of civil strife and conflict, "Liberia is at a crucial turning point," wrote 14 House members in a letter to the leadership of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.(1) The authors seek increased aid for Liberia in the U.S.$72.4 billion supplemental budget request from the administration, which is primarily focused on funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The Sirleaf administration has only a small window of opportunity to prove to the war-battered Liberian people that they have elected a credible government and to discredit reactionary elements determined to recreate and exploit for personal gain the state of corruption, crime and warfare from which Liberia is emerging," the House members warn. In the current fiscal year, the letter says, U.S. assistance for Liberia is slated to total U.S.$115 million - less than the U.S.$130.7 million the country received in FY2005 and considerably below the U.S.$236.1 million spent in FY2004, when Liberia was administered by a transitional government that organized and held elections.
During Wednesday's subcommittee debate on the administration's overall supplemental request, Jesse Jackson (Democrat-Illinois) tried to convince members to include U.S.$94.5 million for Liberia, as well as U.S.$50 million in food aid for Africa, U.S.$100 million for peacekeeping in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and U.S.$51.2 million for increased assistance for refugees in African trouble spots. When the proposals failed to get Republican support, he withdrew them but re-introduced the Liberia request at the U.S.$50 million level. That proposal won subcommittee endorsement on a voice vote.
Early Thursday morning, the full Appropriations Committee exceeded the administrations U.S.$72.4 billion budget request, approving a U.S.$91 billion supplemental that included additional funding for the war on terror and for post-hurricane reconstruction. The U.S.$50 million for Liberia is included.
Advocates of increased funding for Liberia argue that Sirleaf's administration has made an impressive beginning but needs help to sustain the fragile peace and consolidate economic gains. "It's vital to provide monies now for development, so that the people of Liberia see a dividend from their successful democratic election," says Riva Levinson, a Washington DC-based government relations consultant who is advising Sirleaf.
A memorandum circulating on Capitol Hill outlines the accomplishments of Sirleaf's first six weeks in office, including a requirement that senior government appointees declare their financial assets and a reduction in corruption at the ports - producing a 20 percent rise in government revenues over the previous January, even though the new government was in office for only two weeks following the 16 January inauguration.
Other steps include cancellation of all forestry concessions, as well as a major concession for port handling, which will be re-bid "through a more open and transparent process consistent with the new public procurement law"; the dismissal of political appointees at the ministry of finance and retention only of those hired through a legal civil service process; implementation of a cash management system to track all expenditures; and the launch of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights abuses during 24 years of civil war and unrest.
Liberia watchers had expected that the Bush administration would include additional funding for the country in last month's supplemental request sent to Capitol Hill. Government sources say a recommendation for additional assistance exceeding U.S.$150 million, proposed by working level officials, failed to win approval from the senior level at the State Department and National Security Council.
The request to Congress did include U.S.$514 million for Sudan, which has been the focus of considerable media attention and a lobbying effort by a diverse constituency spearheaded by Christian organizations across the country. The sum was divided between U.S.$389 million for peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance in Darfur and U.S.$125 million for food aid, refugee returns and UN operations in the rest of the country. The administration requested a further U.S.$125 million for food aid, principally in Africa, and U.S.$23.8 million for refugees, including the repatriation of 100,000 displaced Liberians.
"Everyone realizes that Liberia should get something," said one official, who fought to include Liberia in the administration's request and spoke on condition of non-attribution. "I'm just glad there seems to be sufficient interest in Congress to make it happen."
One measure of that interest is the joint-meeting invitation to President Sirleaf, which arose principally from a brief visit to the Liberian capital last month by an 11-member Congressional delegation (2) led by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (California) and House Democratic Caucus Chair James E. Clyburn (South Carolina). After returning to Washington, following stops in Sudan, Cape Verde, Ghana and South Africa, Pelosi wrote to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (Illinois) suggesting that Sirleaf be asked to speak, and the idea was endorsed by both the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tennessee).
Sirleaf's address next week will be the 100th joint-meeting speech by a foreign leader since 1874, according to the Office of the Clerk of the House. (Congress generally sits in "joint session" only to hear the U.S. president's annual State-of-the-Union address.).
The Liberian president will be the fourth African head-of-state and eighth woman to address a joint meeting. Nelson Mandela spoke to Congress in 1990 following his release from prison and again in 1994 after becoming South Africa's first democratically elected president. Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba spoke to a joint meeting in 1961, as did Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia in 1954.
Advocates of more funds for Liberia are hoping Sirleaf's Congressional appearance will boost the aid package above the U.S.$50 million approved by the House Appropriations Committee and ensure Congressional passage. In 2003, Congress ignored administration objections to a budget increase by adding U.S.$200 million in humanitarian assistance to U.S.$245 million already included for Liberian peacekeeping in the supplemental appropriation bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S.$200 million breakthrough came when Senator Lincoln Chafee (Republican-Rhode Island) managed an end-run around committee bottlenecks by introducing a floor amendment, which won Senate endorsement. The House went along. The 2003 aid package, totaling U.S.$445 million, spurred international support for Liberia, following the August peace accord ending the war that claimed a quarter-million lives, uprooted over half the country's population and destroyed the nation's infrastructure.
Supporters are hoping Chafee and others may be able to do something similar this year. He signaled ongoing interest when he served as an official observer for the 11 October election, where Sirleaf came in second before going on to win handily in the run-off on 8 November.
Liberia Watch, a coalition of Washington-based groups with constituents across the country, was instrumental in mobilizing the grass roots movement that successfully lobbied members of Congress before the 2003 vote. In an effort to replicate that achievement, the group recently reconvened.
This week, it appealed to Congressional representatives for U.S.$100 million "to help secure the peace and support Liberian post-conflict reconstruction." The letter was circulated by Dr. Dorothy Height, president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women and a prominent civil rights campaign veteran, along with Vivian Lowery Derryck from the Academy for Educational Development. Leaders from a range of religious, civil rights and Africa-interest organizations are supporting the campaign. (3)
President Sirleaf, the Liberia Watch letter says, "is currently building the foundation for economic and political reconstruction, sustainable development, and poverty reduction, and she has initiated actions to reduce corruption by ensuring transparency in the budget process and improving the financial management of Liberia." U.S. support is urgently required to restore electricity, water and sanitation, expand educational and employment opportunities and reform the civil service, strengthen the rule of law, pay for the return of expatriate Liberians, support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and underwrite the training of new security forces and provide presidential protection, the letter says.
Among those calling on Congress to back Sirleaf's government is the president of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church, a worldwide Protestant denomination headquartered in the United States. Bishop Peter Weaver led a delegation from the 11-million member church to the inauguration of the Liberian president, who is an active United Methodist.
"This is a season of renewal for Liberia, a springtime for planting and cultivating a new future," Weaver said in an interview from his office in Boston. "We must engage Liberia as enthusiastic and generous partners, because this opportunity may not come again in the near future, and it is important not only for the people of Liberia, who deserve our support, but also for all of Africa and for the United States as well."
In an expression of continued interest in Liberia, Senator Chafee has agreed to attend a Sirleaf speech in the Rhode Island capital, Providence, to Liberians living in the United States. Another Rhode Island lawmaker, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat and member of the Appropriations Committee, is also expected to take part in the 20 March session.
Rhode Island has a large Liberian population, and the state's politicians have recognized their clout. Chafee is co-sponsoring legislation introduced by Rhode Island's other Senator, Jack Reed, to provide amnesty for Liberians "who have been continuously present in the United States since January 1, 2005" and requires the U.S. government to reconsider the cases of Liberian nationals who have previously been ordered deported, removed, or excluded and allow them to apply for amnesty.
The next major test for including Liberia aid in the supplemental budget bill comes when the measure reaches the floor of the House next week. The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure after the Congressional recess later this month. Derryck says the Liberia Watch coalition is urging voters who support Liberian aid to express their views to their Congressional representatives, particularly those who sit on the Appropriations Committees of each house.
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Among the Senators who may push for Liberia's inclusion are two members of Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittee, Mike DeWine (Republican-Ohio), and Patrick Leahy Vermont), the ranking Democrat who played a key role along with Chafee in 2003.
Others considered by supporters to be sympathetic to aid for Liberia are two Democrats who serve on the Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden (Delaware) and Barack Obama (Illinois).
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(1) The members of the House of Representatives who signed the 7 March letter to the Foreign Operations Subcommittee include two Republican members of the International Relations Committee, Jim Leach (Iowa) and Christopher H. Smith (New Jersey), who chairs the subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. The 12 Democratic signers include the ranking member on International Relations, Tom Lantos (California), and Congressional Black Caucus members Donald Payne (New Jersey), Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (Illinois), Diane E. Watson (California), Gregory Meeks (New York), Corrine Brown (Florida), Juanita Millender-McDonald (California), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Bobby L. Rush (Illinois), Elijah E. Cummings (Maryland) and Caucus chair Melvin L. Watt (North Carolina), along with Patrick J. Kennedy (Rhode Island).
(2) Members of the Congressional delegation, in addition to Nancy Pelosi and James Clyburn, included Caucus chair Mel Watt, George Miller (California), Maxine Waters (California) Donald Payne (New Jersey), Barbara Lee (California) Michael Capuano (Massachusetts) Carolyn Kilpatrick (Michigan), Jan Schakowsky (Illinois) - all Democrats, and Joe Wilson, a south Carolina Republican.
(3) Among the more than 30 individuals who signed the Liberia Watch appeal to Congress were several heads of major organizations, including Bruce Gordon from the NAACP, John L. McCullough from Church World Service, Julius Coles from Africare, Marian Wright Edelman from Children's Defense Fund, Mel Foote from the Constituency for Africa, Badi Foster from the Phelps Stokes Fund, Ron Howard from Opportunities Industrialization Centers International, Nancy Lindborg from Mercy Corps, Hope Sullivan Masters from the Leon Sullivan Foundation, Gay McDougal from Global Rights, Fred Oladeinde from Foundation for Democracy in Africa, Leonard Robinson and Bernadette Paolo from the Africa Society, Shirley Smith from Sister Cities, Howard F. Jeter from Goodworks International, Deborah Harding from Liberian Education Trust and Curtina Moreland-Young from Mississippi Consortium for International Development.
