Snafu delays US funding for Cuban American groups

Posted on Wed, Apr. 05, 2006

Snafu delays U.S. funding for Cuban-American groups
BY PABLO BACHELET
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Administrative snags are delaying government aid to
U.S.-based groups that support pro-democracy organizations and
dissidents in Cuba, several U.S. officials and recipients said Wednesday.

The delays, though said to be a routine result of U.S. government
operations, come at a time that the Bush administration is under
pressure to cut spending, fueling nervousness among grant recipients.

The University of Miami's Cuba Transition Report, for example, is
awaiting a payment of $400,000 from the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) that was due Jan. 1. "I presume that it's going to
come in," said Jaime Suchlicki, who heads the project.

Since the university advances the money for the two-year program, which
began last year, financing for the program is guaranteed, Suchlicki
added, but smaller operations will feel the pinch.

Javier de Cespedes, who heads the Cuban Democratic Directorate, a group
that seeks to provide support for pro-democracy organizations in Cuba,
said he is temporarily using other funding sources to cover what USAID
is late in delivering. "We just shift funds from other areas," he said.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, raised the issue with
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly before a congressional
hearing Wednesday, her office said.

Administration officials say the delays are the result of Congress' slow
work in approving the spending bill that authorized the outlays through
the State Department's Economic Support Fund (ESF). The money is then
disbursed through USAID, and officials are now deciding how much to
allocate to each Cuba program.

"Policy issues are not holding up ESF allocations," Jessica Garcia, a
spokeswoman for USAID, said in an e-mail.

In the 2004 fiscal year, USAID disbursed $21.3 million for Cuba
programs, thanks to a big one-time allotment called for by President
Bush's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.

The amount decreased to $9 million in fiscal 2006, although the State
Department says it is adding $2 million to be allotted through its
Development Assistance program.

On March 16, Florida Republican Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario
Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen and seven other lawmakers wrote to Rep. Jim
Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the subcommittee on foreign operations of
the House Appropriations Committee, asking that funding for Cuba
democracy programs be increased to $23 million for the 2007 fiscal year
that begins Oct. 1. No action has been taken to date.

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