*EPF410 07/19/01
House Passes Appropriations Bill for Commerce, Justice, and State
(Bill includes amendments on EP-3 incident, WWII POWs) (490)
By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The House of Representatives approved with amendments the fiscal year 2002 appropriations bill for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State in a 408-19 roll call vote July 18.

The bill, H.R. 2500, provides for the funding of those departments -- along with the judiciary and related agencies -- from October 1, 2001 to September 30, 2002.

An amendment to H.R. 2500 submitted by House Majority Whip Tom Delay (Republican of Texas) would bar any funds from being used to reimburse China for any expenses related to the collision between a Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft and a Chinese jet fighter April 1.

Specifically, the DeLay amendment says that none of the funds in the appropriations bill can be used to negotiate or pay any request or claim by the Beijing regime for reimbursement of the costs associated with the detention of the 24 crewmembers of the Navy EP-3 aircraft, or for reimbursement of any cost associated with the return of the aircraft. The Chinese government has presented the United States with a bill for $1 million dollars for expenses it says it incurred in holding and then repatriating the crew and plane.

The DeLay amendment passed in a roll call vote 424-6.

Representative Dana Rohrabacher (Republican of California) also succeeded in submitting an amendment to prohibit the U.S. government from filing a motion in any court opposing a civil action brought by an American prisoner-of-war who alleges he or she was used as slave labor by a Japanese individual or corporation during World War II.

Rohrabacher, who in March introduced H.R. 1198, a bill that would allow court actions by former U.S. POWs against Japanese corporations, saw his amendment pass 395-33 in a roll call vote.

Representative David Wu (Democrat of Oregon) sought to have an amendment that would deny granting a visa to anyone involved in China's program of harvesting the organs of executed prisoners.

Taiwan-born Wu, the only Chinese-American in the House of Representatives, serves as chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific Caucus.

Wu's amendment would have prohibited the use of any funds in the bill to be used to process an application under the Immigration and Nationality Act submitted by or in behalf of an alien "who has been directly or indirectly involved in harvesting or organs from executed prisoners who did not consent to such harvesting."

Rep. Frank Wolf (Republican of Virginia) objected to the amendment, noting that it would change existing law and thus would constitute legislation in an appropriations bill. That objection was sustained.

The appropriations bill now goes to the Senate.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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