Section 312-International organizations and programs Subsection 312(a) (1) amends section 302 (a) of the Foreign Assistance Act by authorizing $194.5 million for fiscal year 1976 and $219.9 million for fiscal year 1977 for international organizations and programs. This authorization includes funds for the Organization of American States (OAS), which previously had been funded under a different section of the act. The funds go primarily to the UNDP, UNICEF, UNRWA, and the OAS. VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND PROGRAMS Subsection 312(a) (2) increases the ceiling on U.S. loans for Indus Basin development from $51,220,000 to $61,220,000. In August 1971, the Tarbela Dam, near completion, was damaged. The structural failure is being repaired at a cost of approximately $60 million. This additional cost of completing the project is being shared by six contributors, with the U.S. share being $10 million. Subsection 312 (a) (3) provides $27 million for fiscal year 1976 and for the transition quarter for Indus Basin development. This is the final U.S. grant contribution to the construction of the Tarbela Dam and completes the U.S. contribution to the Indus Basin development project. Subsection 312(b) corrects a technical error in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974. It amends section 54 of that act in order to place that provision properly in part I rather than in part III of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. Section 313-Assistance to the Cape Verde Islands Section 313 of the bill amends section 496 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to increase the amount of grants and decrease the amount of loans authorized under that section for Portugal and present or former Portuguese colonies in Africa, and to forgive repayment of a loan made to the Cape Verde Islands. It does not authorize appropriation of additional funds. Section 496 of the Foreign Assistance Act, enacted last year, authorizes $5 million for grants and $20 million for loans for fiscal year 1975 for economic assistance for Portugal and the countries and colonies in Africa which were, prior to April 25, 1974, colonies of Portugal. Funds made available under this section which have not yet been obligated remain available for obligation under current continuing resolution authority. $2,750,000 of the loan funds remain unobligated. However, pending and possible requests for use of the remaining funds require grant funding. Such requests include a proposal for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for a cash grant contribution toward a $7,150,000 program for the repatriation, immediate relief, and resettlement of refugees in Mozambique, for which AID would like to consider a grant of about $1.8 million. The UNHCR is preparing a similar request for Angola. Other possible uses of grant assistance are $100,000 for U.S. scholarships for the new nation of Sao Tome and Principe and a rural development program in Guinea-Bissau. This amendment would make possible the obligation of the remaining $2,750,000 of what are now loan funds for such programs on a grant basis, by raising the existing grant level in section 496 by that amount and lowering the loan level by the same amount. This section of the bill would also permit a $3 million loan made to the Cape Verde Islands to be turned into a grant. Cape Verde is in serious economic difficulty and almost totally dependent on external aid because of an 8-year drought. Assistance from the United States to start labor-intensive rural works programs in the area of agriculture-dikes for gullies, simple irrigation ditches, and hand-laid stone farm-to-market roads could not be provided on a grant basis because of the provisions of section 496 of the Foreign Assistance Act. The assistance therefore was provided in the form of a loan for $3 million. However, the extreme poverty of the people of Cape Verde and the islands' precarious economic situation make it inappropriate for the United States to require repayment on the loan. Since section 620 (r) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits relieving any country of liability for repayment of a loan made under the Foreign Assistance Act, specific legislation waiving the requirement for repayment is necessary. Section 314-Support for reimbursable development programs This section extends through fiscal year 1977 the authority enacted last year to use AID funds for programs in countries, especially those in which U.S. development programs have been concluded or those not receiving economic assistance, in order (1) to facilitate open and fair access to natural resources of interest to the United States, and (2) to stimulate programs consistent with the provisions applicable to economic assistance for which the foreign country agrees to reimburse the United States. This provision also increases from $1 million to $2 million the amount of AID funds that may be used for this purpose. Section 315-Transition provisions for interim quarter Section 665-Transition provisions for interim quarter Section 315 of the committee draft adds a new section 665 to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA) authorizing appropriations during the interim quarter (July 1-September 30, 1976) at a rate not to exceed one-fourth the fiscal year 1976 authorization rate, for development programs and extends during the quarter the FAA authorities and restrictions applicable during fiscal year 1976. This provision is necessary not only to fund development activities but also to continue authorities and restrictions, which establish a legal framework for the development program. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED In compliance with clause 3 of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman): CHAPTER 1-POLICY; DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE AUTHORIZATIONS SEC. 102. STATEMENT OF POLICY.-(a) *** (c) Assistance under this chapter should be used not simply for the purpose of transferring financial resources to developing countries. but to help countries solve development problems in accordance with a strategy that aims to increase substantially the participation of the poor. Accordingly, greatest emphasis shall be placed on countries and activities which effectively involve the poor in development, by expanding their access to the economy through services and institutions at the local level, increasing labor-intensive production, spreading productive investment and services out from major cities to small towns and outlying rural areas, and otherwise providing opportunities for the poor to better their lives through their own effort. TITLE XII-FAMINE PREVENTION AND FREEDOM from hunger SEC. 296. GENERAL PROVISIONS.-(a) The Congress declares that, in order to prevent famine and establish freedom from hunger, the United States should strengthen the capacities of the United States land-grant and other eligible universities in program-related agricultural institutional development and research, consistent with sections 103 and 103A, should improve their participation in the United States Government's international efforts to apply more effectively agricultural sciences to the gon' f increasing world food production, and in general should provide increased and longer term support to the application of science to solving food and nutrition problems of the developing countries. The Congress so declares because it finds— (1) that the establishment, endowment, and continuing support of land-grant universities in the United States by Federal, State, and county governments has led to agricultural progress in this country; (2) that land-grant and other universities in the United States have demonstrated over many years their ability to cooperate with foreign agricultural institutions in expanding indigenous food production for both domestic and international markets; (3) that, in a world of growing population with rising expectations, increased food production and improved distribution, storage, and marketing in the developing countries is necessary not only to prevent hunger but to build the economic base for growth, and moreover, that the greatest potential for increasing world food supplies is in the developing countries where the gap between food need and food supply is the greatest and current yields are lowest; (4) that increasing and making more secure the supply of food is of greatest benefit to the poorest majority in the developing world; (5) that research, teaching, and extension activities, and appropriate institutional development therefor are prime factors in increasing agricultural production abroad (as well as in the United States) and in improving food distribution, storage, and marketing; (6) moreover, that agricultural research abroad has in the past and will continue in the future to provide benefits for agriculture in the United States and that increasing the availability of food of higher nutritional quality is of benefit to all; and (7) that universities need a dependable source of Federal funding, as well as other financing, in order to expand, or in some cases to continue, their efforts to assist in increasing agricultural production in developing countries. (b) Accordingly, the Congress declares that, in order to prevent famine and establish freedom from hunger, various components must be brought together in order to increase world food production, including (1) strengthening the capabilities of universities to assist in increasing agricultural production in developing countries; (2) institution-building programs for development of national and regional agricultural research and extension capacities in developing countries which need assistance; (3) international agricultural research centers; (4) contract research; and (5) research program grants. (c) The United States should (1) effectively involve the United States land-grant and other eligible universities more extensively in each component; |