Foreign Drug-Trafficking Bill Passes in House
The House on Wednesday passed a three-year, $1.6 billion plan to fight drug trafficking from Mexico and Central America.
The funding would be used to train and equip security forces, strengthen the rule of law and judicial systems, and boost a U.S. program to prevent guns from traveling illegally into Mexico.
The bill, which passed 311-106, largely reflects a plan developed by President Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón known as the Merida Initiative, for the Mexican city where the leaders unveiled it in 2007.
The bill would authorize $595 million for fiscal 2008, $645 million for fiscal 2009 and $350 million for fiscal 2010.
The Senate supplemental would provide $450 million for fiscal 2008; the House version would include $461.5 million. The administration had requested $550 million.
Members cited Mexico’s increasingly violent drug war, which has taken some 6,000 lives in the last two years, including recent assassinations of two top police officials.
We're paying for this..Is this a great country or what?
Maybe it's for economic stimulus....let's give them universal health care too....that would help our terrible image in the court of world opinion.
