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![handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaeeh0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
GAO United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Office of the General Counsel
B-271412
June 13, 1996
The Honorable John Edward Porter
House of Representatives
Dear Mr. Porter:
By letter dated March 8, 1996, you asked whether subsection (w) of the Assistance
for the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (Assistance)
appropriation in the fiscal year 1996 Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and
Related Programs Appropriations Act (FY 1996 Foreign Operations Appropriations
Act), Pub. L. No. 104-107, 110 Stat. 704, 712 (1996) is permanent law. The FY 1996
Foreign Operations Appropriations Act appropriates a lump sum for necessary
expenses to carry out the provisions of chapter 11 of part I of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 [22 U.S.C. §§ 2151 et sea.] and the FREEDOM Support Act
[Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets
Support Act of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-511], for assistance for the new independent
states of the former Soviet Union. Subsection (w) provides that [n]otwithstanding
any other provision of law, assistance may be provided for the Government of
Azerbaijan for humanitarian purposes if the President determines that humanitarian
assistance provided in Azerbaijan through nongovernmental organizations is not
adequately addressing the suffering of refugees and internally displaced persons.
In your view, Congress intended subsection (w) to override a proscription, found in
section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act, that no United States assistance is
available to Azerbaijan until the President determines, and so reports to the
Congress, that the Government of Azerbaijan is taking demonstrable steps to cease
all blockades and other offensive uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-
Karabakh. 22 U.S.C. § 5812 note. Your question is whether subsection (w) applies
only to the Assistance funds appropriated in the FY 1996 Foreign Operations
Appropriations Act or whether it permanently overrides section 907. For reasons
set forth below, we conclude that subsection (w) is applicable only in fiscal years
1996 and 1997, the 2-year period during which the Assistance appropriation is
available for obligation. Subsection (w) is not a permanent statutory provision.
It is well settled that the Congress has the power to enact permanent legislation
in an appropriation act. See, e._., United States v. Dickerson, 310 U.S. 554,
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