Senate Adds Millions for Darfur in Supplemental but Fails to Adequately Fund UN Peacekeeping

April 4, 2006 – On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $106.5 billion supplemental spending bill, including $173 million to help fund African Union peacekeepers in Darfur. An amendment offered by Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Leahy (D-VT) added $50 million to the $123 million requested by the President, for a total of $173 million in the peacekeeping operations (PKO) account.

The supplemental now moves to the Senate floor where it will be open for amendments. The full Senate is not expected to pass the bill until after the Easter recess, which concludes April 24.  After that, House and Senate members go to conference where they will reconcile differences between their legislation. The final bill is not expected to be completed until late May, or early June.

The President requested $92.2 billion in Emergency Supplemental spending back in February to help pay for unexpected costs incurred during the current fiscal year. Included in this package, was added funding to address the U.S.'s current $521 million shortfall for UN peacekeeping.

Bush asked for $69.8 million for the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Southern Sudan (UNMIS), which is expected to be expanded to cover Darfur in the near future, and $123 million for the African Union’s peacekeeping mission to Darfur (AMIS) – the only force currently on the ground in the war-torn region.

The House Appropriations committee took up the bill first and, thanks in part to extensive lobbying from CGS,  increased funding for UN peacekeeping to $129.8 million, $60 million more than Bush requested. During debate on the floor of the House, Rep. Capuano (D-MA) added $50 million for AMIS to the bill, bringing totals for Darfur peacekeeping to $173 million, an amount the Senate matched on Tuesday.

The House finished its supplemental on March 16, passing a $91.8 billion bill, $600 million below the president's request, by a vote of 348 to 71.

Despite the U.S.'s current shortfall in the contributions for international peacekeeping activities (CIPA) account, which funds the U.S. share of 18 UN peacekeeping missions, no funds, over the $69.8 million initially requested by President Bush,  have been added to the supplemental by the Senate.

With an anticipated new mission to Darfur and recent reports highlighting the efficacy of UN peacekeeping and its benefits for U.S. national security, Citizens for Global Solutions believes additional increases are sorely needed. We urge the Senate to support more funding for UN peacekeeping.


Updated April 6, 2006