Patrick Leahy: “I want to mention one other item in the Foreign Operations conference report. It does not earmark Foreign Military…”

“I want to mention one other item in the Foreign Operations conference report. It does not earmark Foreign Military Financing funds for Timor-Leste, formerly East Timor, the world's newest democracy and a friend of the United States. However, we do not earmark funding for many of the countries for which FMF was requested, but we provide $241.7 million in FMF assistance to cover these needs, including for Timor-Leste. The administration's budget request included $1.5 million in FMF for East Timor. The fact that we did not earmark these funds for Timor-Leste should not be misinterpreted as an indication of any disagreement on the part of the conferees with the administration's request. Mr. McCONNELL. That is correct. We did not earmark FMF for Timor- Leste but we intend the administration to provide an amount similar to the request. We also provided $1.5 million in International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, INCLE assistance for Timor-Leste, for on the ground police training, as well as $19 million in Economic Support Fund assistance. The cut in ESF from the fiscal year 2005 level of $22 million was due, in part, to the earmark in INCLE assistance which had not been requested by the administration. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, do I have time under the consent agreement? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator does. Mr. McCONNELL. I yield back the remainder of my time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded. ____________________”