United States Foreign Aid

President Clinton signed legislation Friday beginning the release of $385 million to overseas family-planning programs. Previously, the money was to be withheld until July 1. The administration pushed the speedup through Congress, contending that the delay was interrupting supplies of birth control and contraceptive counseling and would lead to unintended pregnancies, abortions and maternal deaths. Federal funding for abortions overseas has been banned since 1973.

The Senate skidded to a bitterly partisan halt Friday, its debate over spending cuts ensnared in a complicated political imbroglio involving aid to the poor, assistance for the Mexican economy, defense spending and tax loopholes for the rich. Fearing that the standoff could hurt his bid for the 1996 GOP presidential nomination, Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) lashed out at Democrats for opposing the spending cuts and recessed the Senate so he could go to New Hampshire to campaign.

Firing the opening salvo in what is certain to be an escalating confrontation with the Clinton Administration over foreign policy, House and Senate Republicans unveiled legislation Wednesday that would route much of the nation's foreign aid through private hands and merge several independent agencies into a single "super" Department of State. Although the outlines of the proposal crafted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.

No government should cut its aid to poor countries with the excuse that it needs money to balance its budget, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. "This is the kind of alibi that world public opinion should reject," IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus said in a message apparently aimed at the U.S. Congress. He spoke at the close of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

A GOP plan to fold three foreign policy agencies into the State Department and cut U.S. foreign aid by 8% next year was approved Monday night by the House International Relations Committee. On a 23-18 vote with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats in opposition, the committee approved spending $18.8 billion on foreign operations in fiscal 1996, compared to $20.5 billion being spent this year. The bill also would fold into the State Department the U.S.

In the first clash on an abortion-related issue in the new Congress, the House voted Wednesday to bar a $25-million contribution to the U.N. Population Fund because it has programs in China, where the government is accused of coercive abortion practices. The amendment to a foreign affairs bill proposed by leading abortion foe Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) also reinstated a ban on funds for non-government family planning groups that directly or indirectly perform abortions in foreign countries.

The incoming chairman of the Senate panel that appropriates foreign aid is proposing an overhaul of the U.S. foreign assistance program to dismantle the Agency for International Development and cut back funds for development in Third World nations. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.

While the Bush Administration was the bete noire of the 1992 U.N. environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Clinton Administration shifted gears in 1993. "We now see the sustainable development initiative as the cutting edge of preventive diplomacy," said Brian Atwood, the new administrator of the Agency for International Development (AID).

The House adopted new restrictions on U.S. aid to international family planning agencies Thursday, barring any funds to such organizations even if they use their own money to promote or perform abortions. The policy, if agreed to by the Senate, sets the stage for a presidential veto of the annual $13.2-billion foreign operations appropriations bill, which contains nearly 70% of all U.S. spending on international affairs.

Rejecting a challenge by wildlife experts, the Supreme Court upheld a Bush Administration policy Friday that keeps the Endangered Species Act from being applied to U.S.-funded projects overseas. The 7-2 decision is a victory for the President and his attorneys, but it came at an inopportune time: the day Bush arrived at the Earth Summit in Brazil to fend off criticism of his environmental record. The ruling dealt environmentalists a far-reaching defeat on two counts.