US Senate panel suggests using Iraq money for Sudan

By Anna Willard

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday suggested sending $102 million of unused Iraq reconstruction money to Sudan as the Bush administration came under fire for having spent only a tiny fraction of the funds set aside for Iraq.

Senators fumed that the administration has used only $1 billion of the $18.4 billion for Iraq reconstruction that President George W. Bush asked Congress to rush through last November.

The Senate Appropriations Committee added the Sudan measure to a $19.4 billion foreign aid bill for the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. The bill is $2 billion below Bush’s request.

It would be the first time the unused money earmarked for Iraq has been used to help another country.

The United Nations says up to 10,000 people are dying each month in the Darfur region of Sudan from disease and violence in camps for those displaced in fighting.

“A humanitarian crisis is unfolding before our eyes, and the world’s response is inadequate to the scope of this tragedy,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont.

The overall Senate bill has a total of $569 million for Sudan and a separate agricultural bill has another $200 million.

Mounting violence in Iraq has set back reconstruction and the Bush administration has asked Congress to shift money in the fund away from rebuilding to improve Iraq’s security.

The foreign aid bill would let Bush move those funds, including $360 million in debt relief for Iraq which would pave the way for 95 percent forgiveness of Baghdad’s $4 billion debt to the United States.

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE

However, the bill slashes by more than half the funding requested by the Bush administration for a program to help the world’s poor. Only $1.12 billion is set aside for the so-called Millennium Challenge Account, an initiative designed to encourage countries to make political and economic reforms.

Bush had asked for $2.5 billion and aid groups blamed him for the funding cut, saying he had not lobbied Congress hard enough.

“The President promised he would carry his commitment to the Millennium Challenge ‘in my soul’,” said Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2 and founder of advocacy group DATA. “Great commitment, bad follow through.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was urging Congress to fully fund the account.

The Senate panel also approved a $150 million amendment to restore funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to the same level as the current year after Bush asked to trim it. Overall funding to fight HIV/AIDS in the bill now totals $2.417 billion.

Another amendment was adopted to make sure that any money given to Egyptian organizations to help establish democracy there would not have to first win the support of the government.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)