April 26, 2002 contact: Karl Altau Senate Vote On Freedom Consolidation Act Is Imminent Washington, DC (JBANC) A vote on the Freedom Consolidation Act, a bill endorsing a bipartisan vision of further NATO enlargement, is expected to occur in a matter of days, possibly next week. This is a last chance to help affect a positive vote on this legislation. A successful voting result will help keep the NATO enlargement process on track. NATO enlargement ratification is not foreseen until after invitations to the Alliance are issued at the Prague Summit in November 2002. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) unanimously passed S. 1572 in December. The bill was then sent to the full Senate and later debated in the Senate Armed Services Committee, after Sen. John Warner of Virginia called for a hold on the legislation. Your help is critical in getting both of your Senators to support S. 1572. For Senate contact information, links to useful websites have been updated in JBANC’s NATO eBook under “Letters to the President and Your Members of Congress” - http://jbanc.org/pres2002.html. Please contact your local Senate offices and let our friends in Congress know we appreciate their support. The text of S.1572 is available at: http://expandnato.org/senact2001.html. There are 28 co-sponsors of the bill. Robert Bennett of Utah, Kit Bond of Missouri and Phil Gramm of Texas have recently signed on. Other Senate co-sponsors include: George Allen, Evan Bayh, Sam Brownback, Michael DeWine, Richard Durbin, Michael B. Enzi, Peter Fitzgerald, Bill Frist, Charles Grassley, Chuck Hagel, Orrin G. Hatch, Jon Kyl, Joseph Lieberman, Trent Lott, Richard Lugar, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Barbara Mikulski, Zell Miller, Frank Murkowski, Rick Santorum, Gordon Smith, Arlen Specter, Debbie Stabenow and George V. Voinovich. Sen. Jesse Helms, who underwent heart valve replacement surgery yesterday, introduced S. 1572 on October 24. The House passed parallel legislation, H.R. 3167, in November by an overwhelming margin of 372-46 - over 85% support. The bill was designated as the Gerald B. H. Solomon Freedom Consolidation Act of 2001, after the late New York Congressman, a great supporter of NATO enlargement. NOTE: Hearings on NATO and NATO Enlargement will be held in both the Senate and House on Wednesday, May 1. § Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Dirksen Senate OB, rm. 419), 10:15 a.m.
Witnesses: Marc Grossman, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, State Dept.; Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Pentagon; Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.); William Odom, Hudson Institute. |
400 Hurley Avenue Rockville, MD 20850-3121 tel. 301-340-1954 fax: 301-309-1406 e-mail:jbanc@jbanc.org |
