State Department FY2000-2001 Authorization bill

Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2000 - Title I: Authorizations of Appropriations - Chapter 1: Department of State - Authorizes appropriations for the Department of State for FY 2000 for: (1) the administration of foreign affairs; (2) contributions to international organizations and international peacekeeping activities; (3) international commissions; (4) migration and refugee assistance (including for the Kosovar refugees along the Albania and Macedonia border under the Front Line States Initiative); (5) public diplomacy programs; (6) certain voluntary contributions to international organizations; and (7) the Asia Foundation.

Withholds a certain amount of funds from the United Nations Development Program that will be spent in Burma during each fiscal year unless the President certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the Program's activities in Burma: (1) are focused on eliminating human suffering and addressing the needs of the poor; (2) are undertaken only through international or private voluntary organizations that are independent of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) (formerly known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)); (3) provide no financial, political, or military benefit to the SPDC; and (4) are carried out only after consultation with the leadership of the National League for Democracy and the national Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

Limits the U.S. voluntary contributions to international organizations for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Makes such funds available only if: (1) UNFPA maintains funds available to it in a separate account; (2) it does not commingle such funds; and (3) it does not fund abortions. Prohibits the use of funds for UNFPA for a country program in China.

Withholds the funds from UNFPA that would be spent on a country program in China during each fiscal year unless the Secretary of State (Secretary) certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the UNFPA country program in China: (1) focuses on improving the delivery of voluntary family planning information and services; (2) is designed in conformity with the human rights principles affirmed at the International Conference on Population and Development; (3) is implemented only in Chinese counties where all quotas and targets for recruitment of program participants have been abolished and the use of coercive measures has been eliminated; (4) is subject to regular independent monitoring to ensure compliance with the principles of informed consent and voluntary participation; and (5) suspends operations in project counties found to be in violation of program guidelines.

Chapter 2: Broadcasting Board of Governors - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2000 for the Broadcasting Board of Governors to carry out certain international broadcasting activities.

Title II: Department of State Authorities and Activities - Chapter 1: Authorities and Activities - Authorizes the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, subject to the availability of appropriations, to lease commercial aircraft to transport equipment and personnel in the event of a terrorist attack abroad, provided there have been reasonable efforts to obtain appropriate Department of Defense (DOD) aircraft and such aircraft are unavailable.

(Sec. 202) Directs the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees on the extent of international drug trafficking from, through, or over Cuba.

(Sec. 203) Amends the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 to extend through FY 2000 the requirement that the Secretary report to the appropriate congressional committees on the compliance by the parties with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Requires the report to include: (1) a list of countries in which there are unresolved applications for the return of children of U.S. citizens who are being wrongfully retained in violation of U.S. court orders, or which have failed to comply with their obligations under the Convention with respect to applications for the return of such children, access to them, or both; and (2) a list of countries party to the Convention in which, due to the absence of a effective method for enforcement of civil court orders, the absence of comity, or other factors, there is a substantial possibility that an order of return or access under a Hague Convention proceeding, or a U.S. custody, access, or visitation order, will not be promptly enforced.

(Sec. 204) Amends specified Federal laws to repeal requirements for certain reports.

(Sec. 205) Amends the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (as enacted by division G of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999) to make permanent certain reporting requirements, including reports on: (1) claims by U.S. firms against the Government of Saudi Arabia; (2) certain determinations under title IV of the Libertad Act; and (3) relations with Vietnam. Extends through January 1, 2002, the requirement that the President report to specified congressional committees on cooperative projects with Russia in the area of ballistic missile defense, including in the area of early warning.

(Sec. 206) Directs the Secretary to attempt, through negotiations with all Wassenaar Arrangement countries, to achieve the foreign policy goal of an international arms sales code of conduct that restricts or prohibits arms transfers to countries that: (1) do not respect democratic processes and the rule of law; (2) do not adhere to internationally recognized norms on human rights; (3) are engaged in acts of armed aggression; or (4) do not participate in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Directs the Secretary to report on the progress of such negotiations, and the extent to which each country meets the requirements of this section, to the appropriate congressional committees.

(Sec. 207) Establishes within the Department of State the Human Rights and Democracy Fellowship Program. Provides for the employment of between six and 12 fellows in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor who have expertise in human rights policy, human rights law, or related subjects and who are not permanent employees of the U.S. Government. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 208) Authorizes interest accrued on certain joint funds under agreements for cooperation in environmental, scientific, cultural and related areas to be used by the Department of State without return to the Treasury and without further appropriation by Congress.

(Sec. 209) Directs the Secretary to report to Congress on international extradition.

(Sec. 210) Directs the Secretary to establish a regulatory regime of expedited approval for the licensing for export of satellites, satellite technologies, components, and systems to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, major non-NATO allies, and other friendly countries. Earmarks specified funds for the Office of Defense Trade Controls.

Chapter 2: Consular and Related Activities - Amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to revise provisions concerning the State Department and the death of U.S. citizens abroad. Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) notification of next of kin by consular officers; (2) the appointment of such officers as administrators of the estate; and (3) losses in connection with the conservation of the estate.

(Sec. 253) Amends the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 with respect to fees charged for processing machine readable nonimmigrant visas and machine readable combined border crossing identification cards and nonimmigrant visas. Makes any fee collections that exceed certain amounts for FY 2000 through 2002 available to any State Department appropriation to recover the costs of providing consular services only if Congress is notified in accordance with specified reprogramming notification procedures.

Repeals: (1) provisions making inapplicable certain requirements concerning accounting for consular fees to fees collected under this section; and (2) the prohibition against the charging of fees to citizens of countries signatory to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

(Sec. 254) Declares it should be State Department policy to process immigrant visa applications of immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and nonimmigrant k-1 visa applications of fiances of U.S. citizens within 30 days (60 days for other than immediate relative) of the receipt of all necessary documents from the applicant and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Directs the Secretary to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on the extent to which the State Department is meeting such policy standards. Directs the Secretary to establish a joint task force with the goal of reducing the overall processing time for visa applications.

(Sec. 255) Repeals a provision concerning the return of passport fees upon refusal to vise'.

(Sec. 256) Authorizes the Secretary to charge a fee for services provided by the State Department to an individual for assistance in the preparation and filing of an affidavit of support to ensure that it is properly completed before a consular officer considers it and an immigrant visa application.

Chapter 3: Refugees - Bars the use of funds (including migration and refugee assistance) for the involuntary return of a person to a country in which the person has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

(Sec. 272) Requires a certain human rights report in connection with the provision of security assistance to a foreign country to include the extent to which such country has extended protection to refugees (including the provision of first asylum and resettlement).

(Sec. 273) Amends the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to include State Department employees together with Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel within guidelines that address potential biases by such personnel who are hired abroad and involved with duties which could constitute a barrier to a refugee claim if they carry a bias against the claimant on the grounds of religion, race, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Directs the Secretary to issue guidelines to ensure that persons with potential biases against a refugee applicant (including persons employed by, or otherwise subject to influence by, governments known to be involved in such persecution) shall not be used in processing determinations of refugee status, including interpretation of conversations or examination of documents presented by such applicants.

(Sec. 274) Bars the use of funds to support a larger number of personnel assigned to U.S. diplomatic or consular posts in Vietnam than the number assigned to such posts on March 22, 1999, unless the Secretary certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that certain conditions with respect to Vietnamese refugees have been met.

Title III: Organization of the Department of State; Personnel of the Department of State; Foreign Service - Chapter 1: Organization of the Department of State - Amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to establish within the Department of State the Bureau for International Information Programs and the Bureau for Educational and Cultural Exchange Programs.

(Sec. 302) Amends specified Federal laws to remove the Inspector General of the Foreign Service from their provisions.

Chapter 2: Personnel of the Department of State - Provides for the award of the Foreign Service Star to an individual whose death occurs while overseas while a member of the Foreign Service or a civilian employee of the U.S. Government.

(Sec. 322) Amends the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to eliminate provisions allowing leaves of absence with pay in accordance with prevailing law and employment practices in the locality of employment for non-family members of foreign national employees of the Foreign Service and U.S. citizens hired abroad for employment in positions customarily filled by Foreign Service employees.

(Sec. 323) Requires a Foreign Service employee who regularly commutes from his or her place of residence in the United States to an official duty station in Canada or Mexico to receive a border equalization adjustment (locality pay adjustment).

(Sec. 324) Declares that nothing shall prevent a Foreign Service grievant from placing a rebuttal to accompany a record of disciplinary action in such grievant's personnel records nor prevent the Department of State from including a response to such rebuttal, including documenting those cases in which the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board has reviewed and upheld the discipline.

(Sec. 325) Directs the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees concerning the extent to which administrative and technical personnel posted to U.S. missions abroad who do not have diplomatic status suffer financial disadvantages from their lack of such status, including proposals to alleviate such disadvantages.

(Sec. 326) Authorizes the Secretary to extend hiring authority to the heads of Federal agencies or other Government entities to appoint individuals abroad (including family members of the Foreign Service or of other Government employees) to positions to which career Foreign Service employees are not customarily assigned.

(Sec. 327) Amends Federal law to authorize up to three months advance pay to: (1) an employee (other than an employee appointed by the Secretary and employed as a family member of a Government employee) who is a U.S. citizen, stationed outside the United States, and requires (or has a family member who requires) medical treatment outside the United States; and (2) a foreign national employee or nonfamily member U.S. citizen who is located, and must undergo medical treatment, outside of the country of employment.

(Sec. 328) Authorizes the spouse and dependents of Foreign Service employees who have died at post in a foreign country to receive a transfer allowance (extraordinary, necessary, and reasonable subsistence and other relocation expenses) for their return to the United States.

(Sec. 329) Amends Federal law to provide for an education allowance to an employee at a post in a foreign area not to exceed the cost of obtaining kindergarten, elementary and secondary educational services, plus room and board, where adequate schools are not available at the post of the employee, and periodic transportation between that post and the school chosen by the employee, not to exceed the total cost to the Government of the dependent attending an adequate school in the nearest locality where an adequate school is available. (Currently, an employee can receive an allowance only for a school at the nearest locality.)

(Sec. 330) Changes from annual to quadrennial the Secretary's report to the Speaker of the House and to a specified congressional committee on, among other things, a Foreign Service workforce plan for the subsequent five years, including projected personnel needs, by grade and by skill.

(Sec. 331) Directs the Secretary to examine the current benefit structure for survivors of Government employees who are killed while serving at U.S. diplomatic facilities abroad as a result of terrorism.

Title IV: United States Informational, Educational, and Cultural Programs - Amends the Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Relations Provisions Act of 1996 to designate educational and cultural exchange programs between the United States and Tibet as the Ngawang Choephel Exchange Programs.

(Sec. 401) Extends through FY 2000 scholarships for Tibetan and Burmese students and professionals who live outside Tibet and Burma, respectively.

(Sec. 402) Directs the Secretary (currently, the Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA)), in carry out programs of educational and cultural exchange in countries whose people do not fully enjoy freedom and democracy (including but not limited to China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tibet, and Burma), to: (1) include, as a substantial proportion of the participants in such programs, nationals of such countries who have demonstrated a commitment to freedom and democracy; (2) consult with human rights and democracy advocates from such countries on the selection of participants and grantees for such programs; and (3) select grantees for such programs only after a competitive process and specified other conditions are met.

(Sec. 403) Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to prohibit the Secretary (currently, the United States Information Agency (USIA)) from awarding any grant with respect to educational and cultural exchange programs until 45 days (currently, 15 days) after notice is provided to specified congressional committees of the intent to award such grant.

(Sec. 404) Directs the Secretary, in coordination with other appropriate executive branch officials, to take all appropriate steps to prevent foreign espionage agents from participating in educational and cultural exchange programs under such Act.

Directs the Secretary to take all appropriate steps to ensure that no individual, who is employed by an office or department involved with the research, development, or production of missiles or weapons of mass destruction, from a country identified as a country involved in the proliferation of missiles or weapons of mass destruction, is a participant in any such programs.

(Sec. 405) Amends the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 to: (1) rename the North-South Center Act of 1991 as the Dante B. Fascell North-South Center Act of 1991; and (2) redesignate the North-South Center as the Dante B. Fascell North-South Center.

(Sec. 406) Repeals a specified section of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 calling for the abolition of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (effectively continuing the Commission).

(Sec. 407) Prohibits the State Department (currently, the USIA) from expending any funds for a U.S. Government funded pavilion or other major exhibit at any international exposition or world's fair registered by the Bureau of International Expositions in excess of amounts expressly authorized and appropriated, with specified exceptions.

(Sec. 408) Directs the Secretary to take all appropriate steps to ensure that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) are not participants in any educational or cultural exchange program or training through the National Academy program at Quantico, Virginia, under the auspices of the State Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, unless the President certifies: (1) that complete and independent investigations of the murders of defense attorneys Rosemary Nelson and Patrick Finucane have been initiated by the Government of the United Kingdom; and (2) that such government has taken appropriate steps to protect defense attorneys against RUC harassment in Northern Ireland.

Title V: International Broadcasting - Amends the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994 to make permanent the authorization of funding for Radio Free Asia. Repeals Radio Free Asia funding limits.

(Sec. 502) Repeals policy statements urging the privatization of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Incorporated (RFE-RL). Raises the limit on grant amounts to RFE-RL, Incorporated.

(Sec. 503) Grants immunity from civil liability to members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors when acting in their capacities as members of the board of directors of RFE-RL, Incorporated and Radio Free Asia.

Title VI: International Organizations and Commissions - Provides for the appointment of members as part of the American delegation to a conference or assembly of the Bureau of the Interparliamentary Union, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), the Mexico-United States Interparliamentary Group, the North Atlantic Assembly, or any similar interparliamentary group whenever either house of Congress does not appoint its allotment of members to the American delegation. Renames the United States-European Community Interparliamentary Group as the Transatlantic Legislative Dialogue.

(Sec. 602) Authorizes the Commissioner of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission to provide technical tests, evaluations, information, surveys, or other similar services to State or local governments upon request on a reimbursable basis.

(Sec. 603) Amends the American- Mexican Chamizal Convention Act of 1964 to authorize the Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission to receive payments of money from public or private sources in the United States or Mexico for the purpose of sharing in the cost of operations and maintenance of the Bridge of the Americas which crosses the Rio Grande between El Paso, Texas, and Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua.

(Sec. 604) Declares that Congress: (1) commends the State Department for the vote of the United States against United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10-6 affirming that the text of such resolution politicizes the Fourth Geneva Convention which was primarily humanitarian in nature; and (2) urges the State Department to continue its efforts against convening the conference.

Title VII: General Provisions - Expresses the sense of Congress that the United States: (1) should increase its support to democracy and human rights activists in Cuba; and (2) should substantially increase funding for programs and activities designed to support such activists and others in Cuba who are committed to peaceful and democratic change there.

(Sec. 702) Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) in light of the extraordinary actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the importance of a Cyprus settlement to American security interests, the United States should do all that is possible to bring about commensurate actions by Turkey; (2) the time has come for the United States to expect from Turkey actions on the Cyprus issue in the interest of peace, including steps in conformity with U.S. proposals concerning Cyprus and in compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions 1217 and 1218; and (3) such an effort would also be in the best interest of the Turkish people, as well as all others involved.