We also have some proposed anti-French legislation:
Little momentum for anti-France legislation in Congress
But some lawmakers express irritation
Monday, March 10, 2003 Posted: 12:07 PM EST (1707 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite plenty of criticism of France's resistance to U.S. military action in Iraq, Congress so far has done little to move legislation punishing the country for its anti-war stance.
Rep. Jim Saxton, R-New Jersey, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has led the way, introducing bills to discourage American citizens and bar the Pentagon from participating in the Paris Air Show this year. Another Saxton measure would block French companies from participating in or receiving U.S. government financing in any postwar reconstruction of Iraq.
But there's no immediate prospect for action on Saxton's bills, and few other signs that Congress plans punitive measures against France.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-California, said last month that irritation against France will not lead to legislative sanctions. "The primary reaction is kind of sadness and disappointment," he said. "There are folks who make rash statements. Those won't be translated into policy."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, is considering a bill that would require labeling on French wine using bovine blood to make murky wine clearer. The European Union banned bovine blood in wine a half-dozen years ago, but older vintages might still contain the material.
Hastert's spokesman, John Feehery, said the measure, if introduced, would be aimed more at the trade policies of France and other European countries restricting imports of American agriculture products than at France's role in leading the coalition of U.N. members opposing immediate military action against Saddam Hussein's government.
The reluctance to punish a longtime ally has not stopped the rhetoric. "France and Germany are losing credibility by the day, and they are losing, I think, status in the world," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said last month. "They are walking a fine line that is very dangerous."
Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pennsylvania, also an Armed Services Committee member, on Friday sent letters to the French and German embassies in Washington: "Your constant opposition to America's efforts to remove a regime that has continually violated several, if not all of the human rights provisions within the United Nations charter and presents an increasing threat to democracies all over the world is nothing short of appalling," he wrote.
He concluded that Americans and Congress "will not soon forget the rank hypocrisy and blatant disloyalty displayed by your country today."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/10/congress.france.ap/index.html
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