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87–999PDF 2003

AMENDING THE AMERICAN SERVICEMEMBERS’

PROTECTION ACT OF 2002 TO PROVIDE CLARIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO THE ELIGIBILITY

OF CERTAIN COUNTRIES FOR UNITED STATES

MILITARY ASSISTANCE

MARKUP

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H.R. 2550

JUNE 26, 2003

Serial No. 108–25

Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman 

JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa 

DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, 

Vice Chairman 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

PETER T. KING, New York 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

AMO HOUGHTON, New York 

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado 

RON PAUL, Texas 

NICK SMITH, Michigan 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

JERRY WELLER, Illinois 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan 

WILLIAM J. JANKLOW, South Dakota 

KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida 

TOM LANTOS, California 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

BARBARA LEE, California 

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York 

JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania 

EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon 

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada 

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California 

ADAM B. SCHIFF, California 

DIANE E. WATSON, California 

ADAM SMITH, Washington 

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota 

CHRIS BELL, Texas 

THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel 

ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE

DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska, Chairman 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

PETER T. KING, New York 

JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia 

THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan 

WILLIAM J. JANKLOW, South Dakota 

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

BARBARA LEE, California 

JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania 

EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon 

VINCE MORELLI, Subcommittee Staff Director 

PATRICK PRISCO, Professional Staff Member 

JONATHAN KATZ, Democratic Professional Staff Member 

BEVERLY HALLOCK, Staff Associate 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

MARKUP OF 

H.R. 2550, To amend the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 

to provide clarification with respect to the eligibility of certain countries 

for United States military assistance ................................................................. 2

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD 

The Honorable Doug Bereuter, a Representative in Congress from the State 

of Nebraska, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Europe: Prepared statement 5

(1)

AMENDING THE AMERICAN SERVICEMEMBERS’ PROTECTION ACT OF 2002 TO PROVIDE CLARIFICATION WITH RESPECT TO 

THE ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN COUNTRIES 

FOR UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE 

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2003

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EUROPE, 

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:41 a.m. in 

Room 2220, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Doug Bereuter, 

[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Mr. BEREUTER. Good morning. Pursuant to notice, I call up the 

bill H.R. 2550 for purposes of markup by the Europe Subcommittee. 

Without objection, the bill will be considered as read and open 

for amendment at any point. 

[H.R. 2550 follows:]

2

1

I

108TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 2550

To amend the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 to provide

clarification with respect to the eligibility of certain countries for United

States military assistance.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JUNE 19, 2003

Mr. SHIMKUS (for himself, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. SKELTON, and Mr. OBERSTAR)

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on

International Relations

A BILL

To amend the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of

2002 to provide clarification with respect to the eligibility

of certain countries for United States military assistance.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN COUNTRIES FOR

4 UNITED STATES MILITARY ASSISTANCE.

5 (a) AMENDMENT.—Section 2007(d)(1) of the Amer6 ican Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 (title II of

7 Public Law 107–206) is amended by adding at the end

8 before the semicolon the following: ‘‘or a country that has


87999a.AAB
3

2

•HR 2550 IH

1 concluded a protocol with NATO for the accession of the

2 country to NATO’’.

3 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by

4 subsection (a) shall take effect on July 1, 2003.

Æ


87999a.AAC
4

Mr. BEREUTER. I have an opening statement and then we will 

hear from Members. 

The bill before us would extend exemptions from provisions of 

the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 to the seven 

NATO accession countries. By enacting this bill, the Congress 

would ensure that the seven accession countries receive the same 

treatment as our other NATO allies with respect to receiving U.S. 

military assistance. 

I would like to thank my colleague, the distinguished gentleman 

from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus, for introducing this legislation and for 

asking me to co-sponsor it. 

Mr. Shimkus has been one of the strongest advocates of NATO 

enlargement in the Congress since he arrived in Congress in 1997. 

He serves as the Chairman of the House Baltic Caucus, a role in 

which he helps ensure good relations between the United States 

and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. And, of course, he is a proud 

Lithuanian-American. 

Mr. Shimkus and I and nine other Members of the House plus 

staff were in the Baltic states less than a month ago after the 

NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s spring session. We saw first-hand 

how U.S. military assistance is helping those countries implement 

the reforms needed for them to keep their NATO commitments 

when they join the alliance next year. 

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are small countries, they have had 

to build their militaries from scratch after regaining their freedom 

from Soviet occupation. The relatively modest assistance provided 

from the United States is helping them to develop niche capabilities like explosive ordnance disposal teams, military police, and 

mine-hunting ships, capabilities that NATO needs. 

Likewise, the military assistance that we provide to Bulgaria, 

Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia is helping them reform their militaries to contribute to NATO when they join the Alliance next year. 

The funding is modest, ranging from less than $5 million for Slovenia to more than $14 million for Romania. 

These seven countries have been acting like allies even before 

they signed the accession protocols on March 26. All have made 

contributions to NATO operations in the Balkans or to the U.S.-led 

coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most notably perhaps was the 

mountain battalion from Romania sent to Afghanistan using its 

own C–130 transport aircraft to fight alongside American troops 

against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. 

The bill before us would ensure that U.S. military assistance will 

continue to be provided to these seven countries in the same manner as is provided to our current NATO allies. Under the American 

Servicemembers’ Protection Act, as of July 1, next Tuesday,

‘‘No United States military assistance may be provided to the 

government of a country that is a party to the International 

Criminal Court.’’

The law does permit the President to issue two kinds of waivers. 

One is for the countries that sign an Article 98 agreement with the 

United States, which prohibits the court from taking actions 

against Americans present in that country. 

5

Romania currently is the only one of the seven accession countries that has signed an Article 98 agreement. The other waiver 

can be granted by the President if he believes it is in the national 

interest to do so. 

It is clear that continuing military assistance to the seven accession countries, in my judgment, is in the national interest, which 

is why the President requested aid for these countries and why the 

Congress voted to appropriate these funds. If the bill before us cannot be enacted in time to prevent the cutoff of military assistance 

to these seven countries, I strongly urge the President to issue 

waivers to ensure they continue to receive funds. 

If enacted, this bill would extend a permanent exemption from 

the military assistance cutoff provision to, and I quote,

‘‘. . . a country that has concluded a protocol with NATO for 

the accession of that country to NATO.’’

The American Servicemembers’ Protection Act already provides 

such an exemption for NATO members; this bill would simply extend that exemption to the accession countries. 

This legislation is in keeping with the decision of the President 

on March 26th to sign NATO accession protocols with these seven 

nations. It is in keeping with the unanimous vote in the Senate on 

May 8 to give its advice and consent to the ratification of those protocols. 

The U.S. already has fulfilled its constitutional requirements, of 

course, for these seven countries to become our allies. Four of our 

allies have already done so. Now we are simply waiting for the remaining 14 allies to follow their constitutional or statutory procedures for ratifying these protocols. 

In the meantime, I think it is only fair that we treat the seven 

accession countries as we treat our current NATO allies and ensure 

that the United States continues to provide them with military assistance so that they can be ready and actually do make contributions to the alliance. That is exactly as I understand what this legislation contemplates. Therefore, I urge my colleagues on the Subcommittee to approve the bill. 

I am pleased to yield to the distinguished Ranking Member of 

the Subcommittee, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Wexler. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bereuter follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE DOUG BEREUTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEBRASKA, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EU- ROPE

The bill before us would extend exemptions from provisions of the American 

Servicemembers’ Protection Act of 2002 to the seven NATO accession countries. By 

enacting this bill, the Congress would ensure that the seven accession countries receive the same treatment as our other NATO allies with respect to receiving U.S. 

military assistance. 

I would like to thank my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from Illinois, Mr. 

Shimkus, for introducing this legislation and for asking me to co-sponsor it. 

Mr. Shimkus has been one of the strongest advocates of NATO enlargement in 

the Congress since he arrived in Congress in 1997. He serves as the chairman of 

the House Baltic Caucus, a role in which he helps ensure good relations between 

the United States and Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. And, of course, he is a proud 

Lithuanian-American. 

Mr. Shimkus and I and nine other Members of the House, plus staff, were in the 

Baltic states less than a month ago, after the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 

spring session. We saw first-hand how U.S. military assistance is helping those 

6

countries implement the reforms needed for them to keep their NATO commitments 

when they join the Alliance next year. 

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are small countries that have had to build their 

militaries from scratch after regaining their freedom from Soviet occupation. The 

relatively modest assistance from the United States is helping them to develop niche 

capabilities like explosive ordnance disposal teams, military police, and mine-hunting ships—capabilities that NATO needs. 

Likewise, the military assistance that we provide to Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia 

and Slovenia is helping them reform their militaries to contribute to NATO when 

they join the Alliance next year. The funding is modest, ranging from less than five 

million dollars for Slovenia to more than fourteen million dollars for Romania. 

These seven countries have been acting like allies even before they signed the accession protocols on March 26. All have made contributions to NATO operations in 

the Balkans or to the U.S.-led coalitions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most notable, perhaps, was the mountain battalion that Romania sent to Afghanistan, using its own 

C–130 transport aircraft, to fight alongside American troops against al-Qaeda and 

Taliban forces. 

The bill before us would ensure that U.S. military assistance will continue to be 

provided to these seven countries in the same manner as it is provided to our current NATO allies. Under the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, as of July 

1—next Tuesday—‘‘no United States military assistance may be provided to the government of a country that is a party to the International Criminal Court.’’

The law does permit the President to issue two kinds of waivers: One is for countries that sign an Article 98 agreement with the United States, which prohibits the 

court from taking action against Americans present in that country. 

Romania is the only one of the seven accession countries that has signed an Article 98 agreement. The other waiver can be granted by the President if he believes 

it is in the national interest to do so. 

It is clear that continuing military assistance to the seven accession countries is 

in the national interest, which is why the President requested aid for these countries and why the Congress voted to appropriate the funds. If the bill before us cannot be enacted in time to prevent the cutoff of military assistance to these seven 

countries, I strongly urge the President to issue waivers to ensure they continue to 

receive funding. 

If enacted, this bill would extend a permanent exemption from the military assistance cutoff provision to, and I quote, ‘‘a country that has concluded a protocol with 

NATO for the accession of that country to NATO.’’ The American Servicemembers’ 

Protection Act already provides such an exemption for NATO members; this bill 

would simply extend that exemption to the accession countries. 

This legislation is in keeping with the decision of the President on March 26 to 

sign NATO accession protocols with these seven nations. It is in keeping with the 

unanimous vote in the Senate on May 8 to give its advice and consent to the ratification of those protocols. 

The United States already has fulfilled its constitutional requirements for these 

seven countries to become our allies. Four of our allies have already done the same. 

Now, we are simply waiting for the remaining fourteen allies to follow their constitutional procedures for ratifying these protocols. 

In the meantime, I think it is only fair that we treat the seven accession countries 

as we treat our current NATO allies and ensure that the United States continues 

to provide them with military assistance so that they are ready to contribute to the 

Alliance. That is exactly what this legislation contemplates. Therefore, I urge my 

colleagues on the Subcommittee to approve this bill.

Mr. WEXLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I will be very brief. 

I would agree with the Chairman that the proper public policy 

for this Subcommittee and ultimately, hopefully, the Congress to 

take would be to support the Shimkus bill, that it is exactly the 

correct public policy, that the seven accession countries should be 

exempt. 

The only exception I would take is not as to anything that the 

Shimkus bill does, but it is the underlying policy itself which requires that there be a Shimkus bill and the non-discretionary understanding that there is a presidential waiver. But the blanket 

prohibition by Congress that countries that do not sign these agreements will be prohibited from American assistance defies logic. 

7

So I support the Shimkus bill, but I wonder how many Shimkus 

bills we are going to need in the future because there will be many 

instances in which I imagine there will be other countries that for 

legitimate reasons would also be legitimate candidates for exemptions. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BEREUTER. Thank you, Mr. Wexler. 

Mr. McCotter, do you have an opening statement? 

Mr. MCCOTTER. I will defer to the bill’s sponsor. 

Mr. BEREUTER. Very well. We will be pleased to then call upon 

the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus, for any statement he 

would like to make as the sponsor of the resolution. 

Mr. SHIMKUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is really an honor to 

be here with your Subcommittee, it is my first trip over here and 

I appreciate it. I want to thank you for your help, and I want to 

thank the Ranking Member for his support in allowing this to 

move fairly rapidly, since the bill was just dropped, in essence, last 

week and, of course, I cannot get anything done without my legislative staffer, Courtney Anderson, who is in the back of the room and 

I want to thank her for her work. 

The issue is really laid out well. I am actually a reservist in the 

Army Reserve, a lieutenant colonel. I have colleagues who are in 

Iraq right now, brigade commanders of major maneuver elements. 

I understand the need to have the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, but I will also say there are always consequences of our 

actions that we do not take into account. We have the NATO accession countries, the seven who have been invited and our Senate has 

already ratified. They should easily fall under the umbrella for the 

same treatment as other NATO countries, especially since we have 

some NATO countries that are more problematic with the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act than these new accession 

countries. 

And I will say that as we just returned from our trip, one of the 

big things that you observed, Mr. Chairman, was when Lithuania 

voted to send 130 infantry troops to Iraq. That is really a lot more 

effort than some of our major NATO allies are doing and this is a 

good policy because it continues to tell them that they are in the 

fold and we are going to treat them as the major partner that we 

plan for them to be once total accession is completed. I just appreciate you moving this bill Mr. Chairman. This will send a signal 

to other folks, maybe at the Full Committee, maybe in the Administration, that we need to move rapidly because the time is ticking 

away on this and unfortunately it is the consequence of rash action 

that has put us in this position and I thank you for letting me join 

you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BEREUTER. Thank you, Mr. Shimkus, and thank you for your 

initiative. I very much appreciate that. 

Now having already had the bill considered as read and open for 

amendment at any point, are there amendments to be offered by 

any Member? 

[No response.] 

Mr. BEREUTER. Seeing none, then, without objection, the previous 

question is ordered. 

All those in favor of the resolution will say aye. 

8

[Chorus of ayes.] 

Mr. BEREUTER. All those opposed will say no. 

[No response.] 

Mr. BEREUTER. The ayes have it. 

The staff is directed to make any technical and conforming 

amendments. 

I thank my colleagues and I thank Mr. Shimkus for being with 

us today. That concludes the activities of the Subcommittee today. 

We are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:51 a.m. the Subcommittee was adjourned.]

Æ