Fiscal 2005 International Affairs Budget

Secretary of State Colin Powell

The Fiscal 2005 request for monies for the State Department’s conduct of foreign policy is important because of its counterterror content and what that means for South Asia. The State Department, USAID and other Foreign Affairs agencies’ request this time totals $31.5 billion, broken down as follows: Foreign Operations, $21.3 billion; State Operations, $8.4 billion; PL-480 Food Aid, $1.2 billion; International Broadcasting, $569 million; and the U.S. Institute for Peace, $22 million. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Congress 48 percent of the request was for the war on terrorism, including $1.2 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction, security and democracy-building activities; more than $5.7 billion as assistance to countries joining the anti-terror war (which would include Pakistan); some $3.5 billion indirectly supporting the war on terror; and $190 million aimed at expanding democracy in the Greater Middle East. Department of Justice

Attorney General John Ashcroft

On April 9, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that Randall Todd Royer and Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Hamdi were sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema for their convictions on charges stemming from their participation in a network of militant jihadists centered in Northern Virginia. Royer, 31, pled guilty in January 2004 and admitted to aiding and abetting co-defendants Masoud Khan, Yong Ki Kwon, Muhammed Aatique and Khwaja Mahmoud Hasan in gaining entry to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, where they trained in the use of various weapons. Royer also admitted to helping co-defendant Al-Hamdi gain entry to the Lashkar-e-Taiba camp, where Al-Hamdi received training in the use of a rocket-propelled grenade “in furtherance of a conspiracy to conduct military operations against India.” Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison, 10 years on both counts, and the sentences are to run consecutively. In addition, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Al-Hamdi, 26, pled guilty in January 2004 to Count 20 of the government’s Superseding Indictment, and was charged with possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, and to a one-count criminal information on a charge of carrying an explosive while committing a felony. In his plea agreement, Al-Hamdi admitted to possessing a Saiga.308 caliber rifle “for the purpose of enhancing his ability to train for violent jihad in Chechnya, Kashmir or other places outside of the United States.”
He admitted to carrying a rocket-propelled grenade “in furtherance of a conspiracy to undertake a military operation against India.” He was sentenced on April 9, to 15 years in prison, 5 years on the firearms count and 10 years on the explosives count; the sentences are to run consecutively to each other and to the 18-month sentence Al-Hamdi presently is serving for his illegal possession of a firearm as a non-immigrant alien. In addition, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release. The Justice Department said it was continuing its investigation of the Virginia jihad network.
Something that went unnoticed and falls outside this week’s Journal, needs mention nevertheless. On March 30, the Justice Department announced it was intervening in Hearn et al. v. Muskogee Public School District 020, to protect the right of a sixth-grade Muslim girl to wear a headscarf to school. According to the complaint, filed March 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the student was twice suspended from the Benjamin Franklin Science Academy for refusing to take off her headscarf, or hijab, after being told that it violated the school’s dress code. The girl and her parents filed suit in October 2003. The Justice Department, in addition to its complaint, filed a motion to intervene in the private litigation
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U.S. Trade Representative’s Office

USTR Robert Zoellick

The U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick’s office, on April 7, issued the 2004 Review of Telecom Trade Agreements highlighting market access barriers around the world including in India. In this $1.3 trillion dollar telecommunications services and equipment market, Zoellick said, “The United States remains vigilant in enforcing our trade rights and expanding trade opportunities....ng markets and enforcing agreements are two sides of the same coin ---- we pursue both with vigor.”
The report identifies three key barriers impeding access to foreign telecommunications markets, among them “restrictions on accessing wholesale transmission capacity in Germany, India, Switzerland, and Singapore.” The other two are (1) proposed exclusionary standards for equipment and services in China and Korea; and (2) high interconnection rates for mobile and wireline networks in Europe and Asia. Even though “India’s regulator intervened to help ensure that access to submarine cable capacity was provided by the dominant operation, VSNL. This intervention was a short-term solution to a chronic problem of reasonable and non-discriminatory access to such capacity; without a long-term solution, service suppliers may experience further constraints on their ability to access such capacity to provide their services.”
The USTR also released the annual National Trade Estimates Foreign Trade Barriers report that complained about India’s persisting high tariffs and relatively closed markets. It took numerous countries to task for barriers to trade. India is currently the 24th largest export market for U.S. goods with exports in 2003 being $5 billion, up 22 percent from the previous year. “India’s economy is one of the most closed in the world,” declared USTR, and accused India of having some of the highest tariffs globally, while it recognized some “noteworthy” steps tomarkets, especially the January 2004 reduction of basic 25% ceiling tariff rate to 20%, elimination of the 4% Special Additional Duty, and “substantial” simplification of the tariff structure. “Most sectors of the Indian economy are now at least partiallyto foreign investment, with certain exceptions,” the USTR acknowledged. But agriculture, retail trading, railways, and real estate, remained out of bounds to FDI.
House Democrats led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and ranking Ways and Means Committee member Charles Rangel (D-NY), criticized the Bush administration’s record of fighting foreign trade barriers in a letter to the President, saying the Clinton administration averaged 10 dispute cases per year since the World Trade Organization came into being in 1995, whereas the Bush administration had averaged three a year. They called on the President to immediate initiate seven disputes at WTO against India, China, the European Union, Japan and Korea.


Citizenship and Immigration Service

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is planning an increase in the cost of filing for citizenship and most other immigration-related applications. The application for naturalization today costs $260 while the new fee will be $320, a $60 increase. The increases are expected to go through despite opposition from pro-immigration groups, to cover the additional national security measures in place, the department reasons. Public comment on the proposed hike ended on March 4.
Ironically, the State Department informed us that a new Web site had been created to encourage citizens to comment on Federal rulemaking. Regulations.gov is the U.S. Government Web site “that makes it easier for you to participate in Federal rulemaking ---- an essential part of the American democratic process,” says the State Department.

Small Business Administration

n President Bush on April 5, 2004, signed legislation that will increase loan authority for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s flagship 7(a) loan program by more than $3 billion. The 30 percent increase in small business loans increases the total available for the current year to $12.5 billion, and will allow the SBA to lift a three-month-old cap of $750,000 on 7(a) loans and drop restrictions on piggyback loans.
n In Congress, House Resolution 4062 was passed which temporarily extended programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 through to June 4, 2004, from the current April 2 deadline. Rep. Donald A. Manzullo sponsored H.R. 4062.
Department of Health and Human Services

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson

On another somber but unrelated note, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was in India last week on a mission to eradicate polio. India is the highest strategic priority for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative because of its population, size, and global stature, Secretary Thompson believes. After suffering the largest polio epidemic in recent history ---- 1600 cases in 2002, India has made “tremendous progress” within the last 12 months and is now close to eradicating the disease, reporting just 225 cases in 2003 and only eight cases of the highly contagious disease thus far in 2004. Secretary Thompson traveled to three of the six nations that remain polio endemic: India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), chair of CAPAC

At home on the health front, early last week, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), focused on the disparities faced by Asian Pacific Americans nationwide, on health matters. It being National Public Health Week, Rep. Honda also called for congressional action on the “Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act of 2003,” a bill (H.R. 3459) introduced last year that seeks to eliminate health disparities by the end of the decade.
Community Organizations
This April 9, the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) joined the All India Christian Council (AICC) and millions of Indian Christians in expressing its “deep disappointment that the BJP-ruled Government of Gujarat has chosen to break from tradition by relegating a very significant day, Good Friday (April 9), to be a restricted holiday and choosing to schedule Gujarat University examinations on that day.”
On April 10, Pakistani Students Associations from around the country met in Washington to form an umbrella organization National Pakistan Students Association, with the objective to “align the goals and interests of respective constituents in order to promote interaction, networking, and the visibility of its members. Several committees were formed including a Cultural Committee, Political Activism, Human Development, Community Liaison, Drafting, Events, and Media Activism.”