🚀 go-pugleaf

             FCNL LEGISLATIVE ACTION MESSAGE
                      March 26, 1998

The following are updates and action suggestions from the
Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) for the
coming week.  These messages focus on selected
legislation which Congress is considering now, and
suggest some points that you may wish to make in your
communications with Congress.  These messages are
intended as a supplement to other FCNL materials and do
not reflect FCNL's complete policy position on any issue,
nor do they include all pertinent facts on any topic.
This update was prepared and uploaded at 4:00 pm on
Thursday, March 26.  It includes information and action
suggestions on CONGRESSIONAL RECESS, STATE TAXATION OF
TRIBES, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, CUBA and CODE OF CONDUCT.

CONGRESSIONAL RECESS:  Congress will recess beginning
Thursday, April 2 and return the week of April 20.  Many
members will hold meetings in their districts during this
time.  Members need to hear from constituents on a number
of issues.  Next week's message will include a list of
"hot" items.

STATE TAXATION OF TRIBES:  Next week on the House floor,
Rep. LaHood (IL) is expected to offer an amendment to the
Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act
(HR 2400, BESTEA) that would prohibit a tribe from
receiving federal highway funds unless the tribe has
reached a written agreement with surrounding states for
payment of state motor fuel taxes.  BESTEA would
reauthorize federal transportation funding for the next
six years.  Rep. LaHood argues that states lose needed
revenues for road maintenance because some tribes do not
have agreements with surrounding states to pay state
taxes on fuel sold on reservations.

States already have adequate remedies for collecting
motor fuel taxes from reservation businesses. At present,
there are over 200 tribal-state tax compacts in 18
states.  The compulsory "negotiation" required by the
amendment would give states vast and unfair leverage over
tribes, forcing tribes to accept unfair tax agreements
while doing nothing to address the disparity in federal
transportation funding for tribes.

ACTION:  Please contact your representative and urge
her/him to oppose the LaHood amendment on tribal highway
funding.  Ask her/him to ensure that Indian reservation
roads receive adequate funding to meet the urgent need
that exists.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: The House is expected to vote on the
soon-to-expire transportation funding bill (HR 2400,
known as BESTEA, is the House counterpart to S 1173,
ISTEA).  During floor debate, an anti-affirmative action
amendment may be introduced to eliminate the
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE). The DBE
should be retained in its present form.  The DBE is a
flexible, goal-setting, economic development program
which has been successful in increasing participation by
firms owned by women and members of racial/ethnic
minority groups in bidding for federal highway
construction contracts.  Prior to the DBE's inception in
1983, minority and women-owned businesses received less
than 2% of federal highway funds. The DBE has helped
raise this to 15% by providing a fair opportunity for
such businesses to compete. This helps to ensure that
federal transportation funds, paid by all users, do not,
inadvertently, subsidize discrimination.  The DBE meets
the U.S. Supreme Court's  "strict scrutiny" test for
constitutionality of affirmative action programs.

ACTION: Please contact your representative and urge
her/him to support the existing Disadvantaged Business
Enterprise Program.  Urge her/him to oppose any
amendment to BESTEA that would eliminate or weaken the
DBE.

CUBA: On March 20, in response to the Pope's visit to
Cuba, Secretary of State Albright announced that the
Administration would allow direct humanitarian charter
flights and humanitarian remittances to relatives in Cuba
of up to $1200 per year.  The Administration also
promised to streamline and expedite the licensing process
for the sale of medicines and medical supplies to Cuba.

These are positive steps which return U.S. policy towards
Cuba to a pre-1996 state.  These changes reflect a
willingness on the part of the Administration to respond
positively to the humanitarian needs of the Cuban people.
However, the sale of food is not affected by these policy
changes and it is unclear how much the Administration
will streamline the licensing of the sale of medical
supplies.   Further substantive changes in U.S. policy
will require congressional approval of the Cuban
humanitarian trade bills.  These bills are designed to
relieve restrictions imposed by previous legislation.

ACTION: Please call the White House comment line (202-
456-1111) or email the President
<president@whitehouse.gov>.   Thank him for taking these
positive steps to ease relations with the Cuban people.
Thank Secretary Albright for her part in easing these
restrictions  (202-647-5291 or <secretary@state.gov>).
On Tuesday, in support of the National Day of Advocacy
and Education on Cuba, encourage your representative and
senators to cosponsor the Cuban humanitarian trade
legislation (HR 1951/ S 1391).

CODE OF CONDUCT: On March 10, in a closed, late-night
session, the Conference Committee on the State Department
Authorization bill (HR 1757) removed the House-passed
McKinney-Rohrabacher Code of Conduct from the conference
report.  The back-room style negotiating left little room
for debating the merits of the Code.  Rep. Leach (IA), a
strong supporter of the Code, was  removed from the
conference committee without public explanation, and all
Democrats were excluded as well.  In a statement on the
House floor, Code-champion Rep. McKinney (GA) expressed
her disappointment with the leadership's tactics in
removing the Code from the bill.

Undaunted by the setback, Reps. McKinney and Rohrabacher
(CA) and Sen. Kerry (MA) remain committed to moving the
Code of Conduct through Congress.  Sen. Kerry continues
to seek cosponsors for the Code in the Senate, and Reps.
McKinney and Rohrabacher will be working together to
generate even greater support next year in the 106th
session of the House.  Across the Atlantic, the British
government, which holds the current presidency of the
European Union, has presented an EU Code of Conduct that
would complement U.S. and international efforts to
restrain the arms trade.  Britain and France are working
together for adoption of the EU Code of Conduct by this
June.

ACTION:  Please contact your legislators with the
following messages.  1. Express your disappointment that
the Code was dropped from the conference report.  2.  Ask
your senators to cosponsor the Kerry Code of Conduct (S
1067).  3. Urge your representative to contact Chairman
Ben Gilman (NY) of the International Relations Committee
and request that he include the McKinney-Rohrabacher Code
of Conduct in an appropriate bill in the next "mark-up"
by the House International Relations Committee.

This concludes our message.  For further information,
please contact FCNL directly to request the FCNL
Washington Newsletter and other background documents (see
address below).  Not all of these documents are available
electronically at present.

This message may be found regularly on PeaceNet in the
fcnl.updates conference or on the FCNL Web page at
http://www.fcnl.org/pub/fcnl

This message is also distributed regularly via the FCNL-
News mailing list.  If you would like to subscribe to
this list, send an e-mail message To:
Majordomo@igc.apc.org
The message should read:
"Subscribe FCNL-News" (without the quotes)

PLEASE NOTE:  Make sure that you are sending this message
from the e-mail address to which you would like FCNL-News
materials to be sent (ie. don't send it from your work e-
mail address and expect things to be sent to your home e-
mail address)

If you currently receive this message via the FCNL-News
mailing list and are no longer interested in receiving
messages from this list, you should do the following:
Send an e-mail message TO:  Majordomo@igc.apc.org
The message should read:  "Unsubscribe FCNL-News"
(without the quotes)

Though new technologies are allowing us to distribute
information more widely, FCNL still won't have the
resources to engage individuals in dialogue over the
"net".  If you have comments, questions, or corrections
relating to FCNL informational materials, please call or
write us at:  (202) 547-6000 or FCNL 245 2nd Street NE,
Washington D.C. 20002 (or fcnl@igc.apc.org).

To participate in developing FCNL's policy positions, it
is best to season your concerns with your Friends meeting
or church, and then with your yearly meeting's appointees
to FCNL's General Committee.  The General Committee, with
the help of its Policy Committee, revises and approves
FCNL's Statement of Legislative Policy in a careful six-
year process of consultation with Friends.