Congressional Statements

Pallone on the Rule Fiscal Year 2000 Defense Appropriations Conference Report

Pallone Statement in House of Representatives
October 12, 1999

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost) for yielding me this time. I do intend to support the Rule and the Conference Report, but I wanted to express my concerns about some particular provisions concerning U.S. policy in South Asia.

The Conference Report contains language that would give the President authority to waive certain sanctions against India and Pakistan -- including the prohibition on U.S. military assistance to Pakistan mandated by the Pressler Amendment, as well as other arms transfer controls. While I have long supported lifting the economic sanctions against India and Pakistan, which the Conference Report also addresses, I am concerned that provisions in the Conference Report could result in a renewal of U.S. arms transfers to Pakistan.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we were reminded in a stunning and very disturbing way about the potential problems associated with renewing our military ties with Pakistan. The Pakistani Army Chief of Staff, in a nationally televised address, confirmed that a military coup has taken place. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been dismissed and placed under house arrest. Troops took over the state-run television and radio stations and closed the major airports. Pakistan's army has ruled the country for 25 of its 52-year history, so Army takeovers have been a relatively common occurrence. But this time, the subversion of civilian government means that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is under direct control of the military leaders -- the same hard-line forces who precipitated Pakistan's incursion onto India's side of the Line of Control in Kashmir earlier this year, greatly heightening tensions in the region.

I believe the provision in the Defense Authorization Conference Report to grant waiver authority for the Pressler amendment -- essentially on a permanent basis -- is a grave mistake. Combined with expanded waiver authority on other provisions of the Arms Export Control Act, this opens the door for the Administration to renew the U.S.-Pakistan military relationship. Although the Arms Export Control Act waivers would theoretically apply to both India and Pakistan, with Congressional notification provisions, I am concerned that the goal is to renew military assistance to Pakistan. I hope that the Administration would not help Pakistan militarily, thereby putting India at risk. Likewise, I hope that any steps against Pakistan would not be matched by corresponding actions against India.

The Conference Report also provides for extended waiver authority of the Glenn Amendment economic sanctions. I have lobbied for a suspension -- if not an outright repeal -- of the Glenn Amendment. I'm glad that the Conference took action on the Glenn sanctions. Extending the waiver is a positive step. I just think we could have gone a little further.

I also want to thank the Conferees for another positive provision: a Sense of the Congress Resolution that the broad application of export controls to nearly 300 Indian and Pakistani entities listed on the so-called Entities List adopted by the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) is inconsistent with the specific national security interests of the United States and that this list "requires refinement." There is also language that these export controls should be applied only to those entities that make "direct and material contributions" to weapons of mass destruction and missile programs and only to those items that so contribute. The BXA went way too far in blacklisting entities with little or no connection to nuclear or missile programs, and we need to keep the pressure on the BXA to fix this list, to take off entities that don't belong there.