Demilitarization Act of 1997 - Directs the President to instruct the United Nations (UN) Ambassador to support UN efforts to: (1) appoint special conflict prevention envoys to conduct mutual disarmament talks in every region of the world in which all nations would participate; (2) commit each member state to meet with its regional special envoy to discuss its proposal for regional and international confidence-building measures (including mutual reductions in armed forces); and (3) commit each member state to continue meeting with the special envoy and suggested regional bodies and states to complete negotiations on such measures, in order to make significant military spending cuts by the year 2000.
Directs the President to detail to the Congress and the UN Secretary General the changes in military forces that would permit a dramatic reduction in U.S. military spending by the year 2000.
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the United States should provide neither economic nor military assistance, nor approve arms transfers or related training to any foreign government while it opposes loans to such government at international financial institutions pursuant to the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997; (2) the President should designate the U.S. Agency for International Development to be the lead agency for making such determinations; and (3) the President should report annually to the Congress on the progress made by international financial institutions in integrating military spending issues into their loan review process.
[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H.R. 1293 Introduced in House (IH)]
105th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1293
To enhance international security by using the resources and expertise
of the international financial institutions and the United Nations to
redirect world military spending to human development.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 10, 1997
Mr. Kennedy of Massachusetts (for himself, Mr. Dellums, Mr. Miller of
California, Ms. McKinney, and Ms. Furse) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in
addition to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To enhance international security by using the resources and expertise
of the international financial institutions and the United Nations to
redirect world military spending to human development.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Demilitarization Act of 1997''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The world's governments spend $840,000,000,000 each
year to support military forces of more than 23,000,000
soldiers.
(2) This expenditure for achieving security has itself
become a serious threat to security, absorbing 11 percent of
all government expenditures at a time when citizens in both
developed and developing countries face sharp cuts in
programs--such as health, education, research, and job
training--that provide the human building blocks for our common
future.
(3) The United States and other developed nations bear
significant responsibility for excessive military expenditures,
accounting for 77 percent of world military spending and for 94
percent of arms transfers to developing nations, with the
United States being the world's leader in both categories.
(4) The United States and other developed nations jointly
have a controlling vote in the International Monetary Fund, the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and
other international financial institutions that have subsidized
excessive military spending in numerous countries by exempting
the military portions of a country's budget from audit and
assessment.
(5) Developing nations also bear significant responsibility
for excessive military expenditures, spending $191,000,000,000
each year, or 4 times all receipts of foreign aid from all
sources.
(6) In the developing world, where more than 900,000,000
people cannot read or write, military spending is nearly as
high as spending on education.
(7) In the developing world, where 1,000,000,000 people
never see a health professional and where more than 2,000,000
children die each year of preventable infectious diseases,
military spending is higher than spending on health.
(8) The lack of transparency, to both a country's citizens
and to international financial institutions, of the military
budget and of military ownership or other forms of involvement
in the civilian economy provides refuge for corruption and
undercuts the international financial institutions' efforts to
promote ``good governance''.
(9) Ownership of businesses and investment funds and other
types of financial interests of armed forces in the civilian
sector of the economy in countries as diverse as Chile, China,
Ecuador, Guatemala, and Indonesia distorts prices and reduces
competition, and also increases the political power of armed
forces, thereby posing a threat to the transition to economic
and political freedom in the developing world that is a primary
goal of United States foreign policy.
(10) Top-ranking United States and international officials,
including the Secretary of the Treasury, the President of the
World Bank, and the Managing Director of the International
Monetary Fund, have publicly recognized the urgent need to
reduce world military spending, and pledged to make policy
changes in their institutions to promote reductions.
(11) Congress and the President have also made the
reduction of world military spending a goal of United States
foreign policy, and provided for the use of the financial
resources and technical capabilities of the international
financial institutions to achieve that goal, by enacting--
(A) section 60 of the Bretton Woods Agreements Act,
which requires the United States Executive Director at
the International Monetary Fund to report on methods to
promote reductions in military spending;
(B) the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1993, which, in
its statement of managers, urges United States executive directors at
all the international financial institutions to use the United States
voice and vote to promote reductions in military spending;
(C) section 570 of the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
1994, which requires the State Department to report on
countries' efforts to reduce military spending,
including regional force reduction talks; and
(D) section 1502 of the International Financial
Institutions Act, which requires United States
executive directors at the international financial
institutions to take into account, when deciding on
loan proposals, the proposed recipient's commitment to
providing accurate military spending data and ending
military involvement in the civilian economy.
(E) section 576 of the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act,
1997, which states that beginning three years after the
date of enactment of this Act, the United States
Executive Director of each international financial
institution must use the voice and vote of the United
States to oppose any loan or other utilization of the
funds of their respective institutions, other than to
address basic human needs, for the government of any
country which the Secretary of the Treasury
determines--
(i) does not have in place a functioning
system for a civilian audit of all receipts and
expenditures that fund activities of the armed
forces and security forces;
(ii) has not provided a summary of a
current audit to the institution.
(12) Despite these high-level statements and requirements
in law, no significant progress has been made in establishing
either a mechanism for regional talks on mutual military
reductions or mechanisms within the international financial
institutions for--
(A) verifying through accepted auditing procedures
the accuracy of reported military budgets;
(B) receiving and assessing the justification for
various expenditures within military budgets as well as
the overall trends and amounts of such expenditures;
and
(C) ending military ownership and financial
interests in the civilian economy.
(13) Dr. Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and
1987 Nobel Peace Laureate, has joined with over 80 citizens'
groups around the world to propose a practical plan to achieve
the goals of these high-level statements and requirements in
law, The Year 2000 Campaign to Redirect World Military Spending
to Human Development, which contains the following 6 proposals:
(A) The Security Council and General Assembly of
the United Nations call on all nations to commit to
meeting with their neighbors to identify and implement
confidence-building measures and mutual reductions in
military threats that will reduce the likelihood of
future conflicts. These nations will seek to achieve
substantial reductions in military forces and
expenditures by the year 2000.
(B) Special envoys be appointed by the United
Nations Secretary-General to organize these
demilitarization talks in various regions of the world.
(C) Every nation meet with its regional envoy to
present plans for regional security at reduced force
levels. These nations will also participate in
negotiations guided by the envoy in order to identify
military capacities and implement mutual force
reductions. Such negotiations will reduce the threat
that nations pose to each other due to the size,
proximity, and technological sophistication of their
armed forces.
(D) With savings from reduced military spending,
all nations, in cooperation with grassroots
organizations, implement economic reforms related to
demilitarization, such as the conversion of military to
non-military production, landmine clearance, community
reconstruction, and the reintegration of demobilized
soldiers.
(E) In support of the steps taken toward
demilitarization by developing countries,
industrialized nations condition their bilateral and
multilateral aid to promote demilitarization. They will
exchange debt forgiveness for military conversion
efforts, provide special funding for programs to assist
the demilitarization process, promote full transparency
and reductions in military budgets, and bring about the
end of military involvement in the civilian economy.
(F) All arms-exporting nations agree to a Code of
Conduct on arms transfers that would bar exports to
nondemocratic governments, countries engaged in armed
aggression in violation of international law, countries
that do not fully participate in the United Nations
Register of conventional arms, and governments
permitting gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights.
(14) Citizens around the world are signing The Arias Peace
Pledge and communicating to their governments their support for
the proposals of The Year 2000 Campaign to Redirect World
Military Spending to Human Development.
(15) The United Nations is expected to consider crucial
components of this 6-point plan.
SEC. 3. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to enhance international security by
using the resources and expertise of the international financial
institutions and the United Nations to redirect world military spending
to human development.
SEC. 4. SPECIAL ENVOYS FOR MUTUAL DISARMAMENT.
The President shall instruct the United States Ambassador to the
United Nations to support in the Security Council, the General
Assembly, and other United Nations bodies, resolutions and other
efforts to--
(1) appoint special envoys for conflict prevention to
organize and conduct, in cooperation with appropriate
multilateral institutions, mutual disarmament talks in every
region of the world in which all nations would participate, and
to report to international financial institutions on the degree
of cooperation of governments with these talks;
(2) commit each member state to agree to meet with its
regional special envoy within 3 months of appointment to
deliver and discuss its proposal for regional (and, where
appropriate, international) confidence-building measures,
including mutual reductions in the size, proximity, and
technological sophistication of its and other nations' armed
forces, that would lead to significant cuts in threat levels
and military spending; and
(3) commit each member state to agree to continue meeting
with the special envoy and such regional bodies and states as
the special envoy shall suggest to complete negotiations on
such confidence-building measures, with the goal of making
significant cuts in military spending by the year 2000.
SEC. 5. ALTERNATIVE SECURITY PLAN.
Within 3 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
President shall prepare and deliver to the Congress and to the
Secretary General of the United Nations a report as described in
section 4(2) that would detail the changes in other nations' forces and
United States forces that would permit by the year 2000 a dramatic
reduction in United States military spending.
SEC. 6. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.
It is the sense of the Congress that--
(1) the United States should not provide economic
assistance, military assistance, or approve arms transfers or
related training, to any foreign government at any time during
which the United States is opposing loans to that foreign
government at international financial institutions pursuant to
section 576 of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997.
(2) the President should designate the United States Agency
for International Development to be the lead agency for the
determinations made pursuant to section 576 (also section
15027); and
(3) the President should report annually to the Congress on
the progress made by international financial institutions in
integrating military spending issues such as those raised in
this Act into the loan review process of such international
financial institutions.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to House International Relations
Referred to the Committee on International Relations, and in addition to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to House Banking and Financial Services
Referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy.
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