Foreign Affairs Reorganization

THE DAILY FED

Foreign Affairs Reorganization

The Clinton administration is revisiting a plan touted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., to consolidate or merge three independent foreign affairs agencies into the State Department as the President seeks Helms' support for a major chemical weapons treaty.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Vice President Gore's staff, the National Security Council and the State Department have prepared an options paper discussing the effects of various reorganization plans. Proposals range from merging the Agency for International Development, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the U.S. Information Agency into the State Department to streamlining those agencies' operations by implementing National Performance Review initiatives.

Gore told reporters traveling with him to China on Saturday that foreign affairs reorganization is "on a short fuse."

In 1995, Helms introduced legislation to abolish the three agencies. Though he later scaled back his proposal, Helms has said he will not approve the chemical weapons ban treaty before legislation is passed to revamp the foreign policy establishment.

The treaty is a major priority for the Clinton administration. It will go into effect April 29 with or without U.S. backing.

"We want to be responsive to Senator Helms because we have a lot of things we want to do with him," a senior administration official told the Post. "But being responsive and looking seriously at reorganization is not the same as ending up with the total plan that he put on the table two years ago."

Gore said he expects to make a recommendation for reorganizing the foreign affairs agencies early next month.