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 investiga-
tion 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 regard-
ing the Clinton Administration’s lack of cooperation and
efforts to impede the investigation by the General Ac-
counting 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;
•HRES 664 IH
Whereas in the course of this 7-month long investigation into
the Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD–25) proc-
ess, providing guidance for making choices about which
United Nations operations the United States will sup-
port, the GAO encountered substantial problems in ob-
taining 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 esti-
mates;
Whereas the State Department withheld information from
GAO investigators for months about the existence of nu-
merous 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 re-
dacted 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
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that after seven months of delay the Adminis-
tration should stop impeding the investigation by the Gen-
eral Accounting Office into how it has applied its peace-
•HRES 664 IH
keeping policy process to several ongoing United Nations
peacekeeping operations and that the following rec-
ommendations would help to bring the investigation to a
successful conclusion:
(1) The President is urged to direct the Sec-
retary of State and all other relevant government of-
ficials to cooperate fully with the investigation, in-
cluding prompt compliance with outstanding docu-
ment requests and full cooperation with the efforts
of the Committee on International Relations to con-
vene a briefing with State Department officials on
this matter.
(2) The GAO should consider taking enforce-
ment action against the Administration for any con-
tinuing failure to provide requested documents.
(3) The Administration should provide to the
GAO the full text of any documents, policy papers
or memorandums that it has agreed to make avail-
able to any other member country of the United Na-
tions General Assembly.
(4) The Administration should cooperate fully
with the GAO and with Congress in their efforts to
oversee future United States participation in United