Washington, DC — The United States Senate may vote as early as Tuesday on a budget amendment proposed by Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee that would provide $80 million in immediate assistance to the new democratic government in Liberia. The amount would be added to a "supplemental" budget bill that is aimed primarily at paying for U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Despite widespread Congressional goodwill towards Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whose speech before a joint Senate-House meeting in March was greeted with dozens of enthusiastic ovations, the measure could fall victim to disagreements over Federal spending and the Iraq war. Groups favoring the aid have issued urgent appeals for public pressure on the Senate to approve the funds, arguing that failure to consolidate Liberia's fragile peace would be far costlier than the proposed assistance.
"I have witnessed first hand the tenuous security situation that has existed since the departure of Charles Taylor," the former rebel leader and president, said Chafee in a statement late Monday. The Senator, who served as an observer for Liberia's election last year, said he believes the funding "will help the people of Liberia continue their recovery from the bloody and oppressive civil war."
But Chafee's amendment faces a major challenge in the controversy surrounding the supplemental bill. As adopted by the House in March, the measure totaled $90.1 billion and combined assistance for victims of last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes with the administration's war-related request for $67 billion. Another $15 billion has been added during Senate deliberations, setting the stage for a floor fight involving not only Democrats, who are critical of the handling of the war, but also members of both parties who want to reign in federal spending.
Chafee's proposed amendment would increase aid for Liberia in the supplemental from the House-approved level of $50 million to $80 million, which is closer to what the Liberian government says is needed to help jump-start essential projects. Although the extra $30 million is a small portion of the bill's multi-billion dollar total, backers are worried. "The outcome hinges on whether goodwill towards Liberia can outweigh budget dynamics," says Riva Levinson, a managing director at the government relations firm BKSH, who represents Liberia in Washington.
Chafee can likely count on bi-partisan support for his amendment from prominent Senators, including Republicans Mike DeWine of Ohio and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Barack Obama of Illinois. But that support may not be sufficient to win on the Senate floor.
When she addressed Congress last month, President Sirleaf made the case that the relatively modest expenditure Liberia is seeking could pay big dividends. Stabilizing democracy and promoting development requires a fraction of the amount already spent on humanitarian aid and evacuations of American citizens during the country's long civil war, she said. With minimal support, Liberia would be able to demonstrate that democracy can succeed, "even under the most challenging conditions," she told the assembled members. And she said Liberia is seeking partnership, not patronage, from the United States. "We do not want to continue in dependency. The benefits of your assistance must be mutual."
A number of organizations have been mobilizing a public effort to convince the Senate to maintain humanitarian funding in the current supplemental. In a March 29 letter to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops cited Liberian aid as one of the "vital priorities" that should remain in the bill, along with the $360 million in food aid and $514 million for refugee and humanitarian needs in Sudan that the House version includes.
Liberia Watch, a loose non-partisan coalition of Washington, DC-based organizations and individuals that successfully lobbied for a similar measure in 2003, issued an urgent appeal late Monday asking constituents to contact as many Senators as possible to press for a favorable vote on Liberian aid. The coalition earlier sent letters to members of Congress arguing that financial support for President Sirleaf's efforts is "critical in determining whether the country moves forward or falls back to chaos and instability." The letters were signed by leaders from a range of religious, civil rights and Africa-interest constituency organizations.
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The effort to include Liberia aid in the budget supplemental does not have support from the White House or State Department, even though the administration has warmly welcomed the successful transition in Liberia to democratic government headed by Africa's first elected women president. First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led the U.S. delegation to Sirleaf's Inauguration, and President Bush hosted Sirleaf at a White House meeting and luncheon during her visit to Washington in March. But Liberia was not included in the administration's supplemental request to Congress, leaving legislators to find the funds to meet Liberia's urgent immediate needs.
