Boland Amendment

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The Boland Amendment was an amendment to the House Appropriations Bill of 1982, which was attached as a rider to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983. The House of Representatives passed the Boland Amendment 411-0 on December 8, 1982,^[1] and it was signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1982. The amendment effectively outlawed US assistance to the Contras, while allowing overt efforts to stop military equipment to go to Nicaragua.

1 Background
2 Summary of House Amendment 461
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Background

During the early years of the Reagan administration, a civil war raged in Nicaragua, pitting the Marxist Sandinista leaders of the Nicaraguan government against CIA-financed Contra rebels. When the CIA carried out a series of acts of sabotage without Congressional intelligence committees giving consent, or even being made aware beforehand, the Republican-controlled Senate became enraged, leading to the passage of the Boland Amendment and subsequent cutting off of appropriated funding for the Contras.

The Boland Amendment, proposed by Edward Boland, was a highly limited ambiguous compromise because the Democrats did not have enough votes for a comprehensive ban. It covered only appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies (such as the CIA). Reagan's people used non-appropriated money spent by the National Security Council to circumvent the Amendment. No court ever made a determination whether Boland covered the NSC, and no one was ever indicted for violating it. Opponents alleged that Reagan's people violated the highly ambiguous amendment. Congress later resumed aid to the Contras, totaling over $300 million; the Sandinistas were voted out in 1990.

The Boland Amendment prohibited the federal government from providing military support "for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of Nicaragua." As such it was thought by many to be an unconstitutional interference with the President's ability to conduct foreign policy. It aimed to prevent CIA funding of rebels opposed to the Marxist provisional junta, the Boland Amendment sought to block Reagan administration support for the Contra rebels. The amendment was narrowly interpreted by the Reagan administration to apply to only U.S. intelligence agencies, allowing the National Security Council, not so labeled, to channel funds to the Contra rebels. In order to block this, the amendment was changed to prohibit any funds for military or paramilitary operations.^[2]^[3]

Administration officials argued that the Boland Amendment, or any act of Congress would not interfere with the president's conduction of foreign policy by restricting funds, as the president could seek funds from private entities or foreign governments.^[4] In this spirit, and despite the Boland Amendment, Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter and his deputy, Lt. Colonel Oliver North, possibly without informing the president, secretly diverted to the Nicaraguan contras millions of dollars in funds received from a secret deal which had had explicit presidential approval -- the sales of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran in spite of Reagan's public pledge not to deal with terrorists. In November, 1986, a pro-Syrian newspaper in Lebanon revealed the secret deal to the world. This came as Democrats won back control of Congress in the 1986 elections. In public hearings of a joint House-Senate committee convened for purposes of investigating the affair, angry Democrats sought to prosecute Col. North for his role. The final report published after the hearings blamed Reagan's passive style of leadership for allowing the conduct of foreign policy without involvement of any elected official. However, a later Congress repealed the Boland Amendment and resumed funding. Elections in Nicaragua subsequently ousted the Marxists from power.

[edit] Summary of House Amendment 461

House Amendment 461 to HR 2968 is summarized by the Thomas Bill Summary & Status (under Amendments) as

"An amendment to prohibit covert assistance for military operations in Nicaragua and to authorize overt interdiction assistance. The overt interdiction assistance consists of assistance furnished by the President on terms he may dictate to any friendly country in Central America to enable that country to prevent the use of its territory for the transfer of military equipment from or through Cuba or Nicaragua or any other country. The assistance must be overt. For this overt aid $30,000,000 is provided for FY'83 and $50,000,000 is provided for FY'84."

[edit] Notes

^ http://ciadrugs.homestead.com/files/irancontrareview.html
^ The Truth is Stranger than Fiction. University of Sydney.
^ Theodore Draper. A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affair. New York: Hill and Wang, p.17-27,51.
^ Louis Fisher (October 1989). "How Tightly Can Congress Draw the Purse Strings?". American Journal of International Law 83 (4): 758-766. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.