IV

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. RES. 664

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the Clinton

Administration’s lack of cooperation and efforts to impede the investigation by the General Accounting Office into the implementation of United

States policy toward United Nations peacekeeping operations.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 30, 2000

Mr. GILMAN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the

Committee on International Relations

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the Clinton Administration’s lack of cooperation and

efforts to impede the investigation by the General Accounting Office into the implementation of United States

policy toward United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Whereas at the request of the Chairman and the ranking

member of the Committee on International Relations, the

United States General Accounting Office (GAO) initiated

a review on March 23, 2000, of the executive branch’s

application of United States policy in the approval of new

or expanded United Nations peacekeeping operations in

East Timor, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo;
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Whereas in the course of this 7-month long investigation into

the Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD–25) process, providing guidance for making choices about which

United Nations operations the United States will support, the GAO encountered substantial problems in obtaining access to records pertinent to its review;

Whereas PDD–25 directs officials to consider whether such

operations serve United States national interests and

have timetables for the completion of their mandates,

clear exit strategies, integrated political and military

strategies, specified troop levels, and firm budget estimates;

Whereas the State Department withheld information from

GAO investigators for months about the existence of numerous PDD–25 documents and the GAO still believes

that there are additional documents in department files

that have a direct bearing on the investigation;

Whereas the National Security Council is in possession of 26

remaining documents and memorandums which have only

recently been shown to GAO investigators in heavily redacted form; and

Whereas in past assignments the GAO has had access to this

type of information and used it to report to Congress on

similar peacekeeping policy issues without damaging the

deliberative process on operations of the government:

Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that after seven months of delay the Adminis3 tration should stop impeding the investigation by the Gen4 eral Accounting Office into how it has applied its peace-
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1 keeping policy process to several ongoing United Nations

2 peacekeeping operations and that the following rec3 ommendations would help to bring the investigation to a

4 successful conclusion:

5 (1) The President is urged to direct the Sec6 retary of State and all other relevant government of7 ficials to cooperate fully with the investigation, in8 cluding prompt compliance with outstanding docu9 ment requests and full cooperation with the efforts

10 of the Committee on International Relations to con11 vene a briefing with State Department officials on

12 this matter.

13 (2) The GAO should consider taking enforce14 ment action against the Administration for any con15 tinuing failure to provide requested documents.

16 (3) The Administration should provide to the

17 GAO the full text of any documents, policy papers

18 or memorandums that it has agreed to make avail19 able to any other member country of the United Na20 tions General Assembly.

21 (4) The Administration should cooperate fully

22 with the GAO and with Congress in their efforts to

23 oversee future United States participation in United
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1 Nations or other multilateral peacekeeping oper2 ations.

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