April 3, 2000 Vol. 2, No. 11

This Week in Washington...

For more information, contact Reva Price, Washington Representative at rprice@thejcpa.org

THE PROCESS OF PEACE: Israeli and Palestinian delegations will be reconvening this week for talks at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. The discussions will continue to focus primarily on permanent status issues. Negotiators are trying to achieve a framework agreement as soon as possible, in the hope that a comprehensive agreement can be reached by September 13, 2000.

SENATE COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER LESSONS OF HOLOCAUST: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. Jesse Helms (NC), is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday afternoon entitled "The Holocaust: the Legacy of Hate" with three panels of familiar experts making presentations. Speakers will include Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel; Stuart Eizenstat, Deputy Secretary, Department of Treasury; Mark Levin of the NCSJ; David Harris of American Jewish Committee and Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress. The last three speakers will brief the committee on hate groups and extremism in contemporary Europe and the former Soviet Union.

REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE ALERT: The House will again consider legislation later this week that would ban the so-called "partial birth" abortion procedure. This marks the third time the bill has come to the House floor, and as it did in 1996 and 1997, it is expected to pass. President Clinton twice vetoed the legislation because it did not provide adequate exception to protect women’s health. The House was able to override the presidential twice, but Senate was not. The bill (HR3660) would subject those who perform the procedure for any other reason than to protect a woman’s life to two years in prison. The Supreme Court will hear arguments April 25^th regarding the constitutionality of a Nebraska law banning this abortion procedure, and the Court’s decision, due later this year, will likely have an effect on the future of this legislation.

ELSEWHERE ON CAPITOL HILL: The Senate will spend much of the week debating their Fiscal Year 2001 Budget Resolution. Currently the Senate Leadership hopes to pass a plan that would allow $596.5 billion in discretionary spending and provide for tax cuts totaling at least $150 billion over the next five years. This combination promises to leave little "wiggle room" for appropriators to fully fund priority items. The House Education and the Workforce Committee will address the remaining programs to be authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Look for an amendment to be introduced by Representative Bobby Scott (VA) which will restore language authorizing the Department of Education to develop and support anti-bias and hate crime prevention initiatives under the act.

This Week in New York...

For more information, contact Benita Gayle-Almeleh, Senior Community Consultant at bga@thejcpa.org

ARGENTINA UPDATE: As part of its ongoing commitment to keep the issues important to the Argentine Jewish community on the American Jewish communal agenda, the JCPA received a letter last week from the office of Argentine President Fernando de la Rua. The letter comes in response to one sent by the JCPA congratulating de la Rua upon his election, and urging his government to move forward on the investigations into the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings. The letter from de la Rua's private secretary assured the JCPA that bringing the perpetrators of the bombings to justice is a priority for the government of Argentina, and that terrorism will not be tolerated by de la Rua's administration.