19672: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-With Aristide out, U.S. aid likely to rise with stabilit (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Mar. 03, 2004

CONGRESS


With Aristide out, U.S. aid likely to rise with stability

Some congressional members hope to boost bipartisan efforts to increase
long-term assistance to Haiti.

BY FRANK DAVIES

fdavies@herald.com


WASHINGTON - From trade breaks to economic aid, Haiti's advocates on Capitol
Hill this week see an opportunity to build congressional support for more
long-term aid.

''We're going to have to take some bold steps to help Haiti,'' Sen. Mike
DeWine, R-Ohio, said Tuesday. ``With Aristide gone, that should make it
easier for us to work on Haitian issues from a bipartisan point of view.''

For 10 years, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a polarizing figure in Washington,
with Democrats largely supporting him and Republicans questioning his
legitimacy.

Aid to Haiti shrunk from about $100 million to $200 million a year in the
mid-1990s to $52 million last year, with that assistance funneled to
independent agencies instead of the government. The Bush administration cut
off aid to the Aristide government.

With Aristide gone, Congress still will be reluctant to increase aid until
it sees a stable, functioning government in Haiti, predicted Ronald Scheman,
who served as the U.S. executive director for the Inter-American Development
Bank in the '90s.

`EDUCATION KEY'

''With 70 percent illiteracy, education is the key, or we will lose another
generation,'' said Scheman, who heads a development agency within the
Organization of American States.

DeWine and several Florida members of Congress are pushing a bill designed
to create apparel jobs in Haiti by granting duty-free status to articles
assembled from fabric coming from other countries in the hemisphere.

''The Haitian work force is hard-working, and some employers are ready to go
back in -- this bill would really help,'' said DeWine, who added that
assembly jobs in Haiti have shrunk from about 100,000 to 30,000.

DeWine said he is worried that the nearly completed Central American Free
Trade Agreement could have a negative impact on Haiti, unless it gets
similar breaks.

The bill's cosponsors are Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat, and Reps.
Clay Shaw, a Fort Lauderdale Republican, and Kendrick Meek, a Miami
Democrat.

Some short-term measures are also getting support. Rep. Peter Deutsch, a
Broward Democrat, introduced a bill that would bar deportations of Haitians
during the crisis by granting them ``temporary protected status.''

''America should not be sending back Haitian refugees with the uncertainty
on the ground,'' Deutsch said.

Meek, Deutsch and other South Florida House members -- including Republicans
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart -- have called on
Homeland Security to take that step without waiting for legislation.

WEBSITE IN CREOLE

This week, by coincidence, Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Broward Democrat,
introduced a service that could help Haitians and Haitian Americans. His
website ( www.alceehastingshouse.gov) now has information and links in
Creole, a first in Congress, along with English and Spanish.

The Creole addition to the website had been in the works since November.

The website has information on constituent services, including immigration.

Hastings said he plans to introduce legislation soon that would increase
assistance for computer ownership and Internet access in minority and rural
communities.

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