The Saga of the No Permanent Bases

By Sue Udry, UFPJ

This issue is very much alive in both the House and the Senate! I've been asked to recap for people what has happened with the No Permanent Bases in congress:

In the House, the champions of the issue are Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Allen (D-ME); in the Senate, Sen. Biden (D-DE) is leading the issue.

Amendments on No Permanent Bases:
1. Early this spring, the House approved a No Permanent Bases (NPB) amendment to the supplemental spending bill. It was passed by a voice vote.
2. The Senate approved a NPB amendment to the same bill, the supplemental spending bill. This vote was also a voice vote... the language was slightly different from the House NPB amendment.
3. The supplemental bill went to a House/Senate conference committee to iron out the differences. Although both chambers had voted for NPB amendment, it was stripped from the bill. This is a highly unusual, nasty, dirty trick... but not necessarily illegal.
4. The bill went back to both the House and Senate for final approval. It was approved in both chambers in June, without the NPB amendment.
5. In the last few weeks, the House added a NPB amendment to two different appropriations bills: Defense Appropriations and Science,State,Justice & Commerce Appropriations. The Senate will take up those appropriations bills soon. (As early as July 20 for the Defense Appropriations).
6. The Senate has added a NPB amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill (on a voice vote). The House had already passed the Defense Authorization bill, without an NPB amendment. This bill will now go to a House/Senate conference committee to iron out the differences.

Rep. Lee's office will collect signatures on a letter asking conferees to keep NPB in the language in the appropriations bills. We'll send an alert as soon as we have specifics.

In addition to the above efforts, there is legislation in both chambers on NPB:

Legislation: (see the UFPJ website for more info: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php? id=3116 )
there are 3 NPB resolutions in the House:
H.Con.Res.197, introduced by Barbara Lee. it has 83 co-sponsors
H.R.3142, introduced by Tom Allen. it has 40 co-sponsors
H.Con.Res.348, introduced by Rep. Thompson (D-CA). it has 35 co-sponsors (this resolution includes troops out and U.S. hands off Iraq's oil)
to find out if your Rep. has co-sponsored any of these bills, http://www.unitedforpeace.org/downloads/activemeasures.xls

There is one NPB resolution in the Senate:
S. Con. Res.93, introduced by Sen. Harkin, no co-sponsors