As a long time human rights advocate, Congressman Kucinich has actively fought to end funding for the School of the Americas/ Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. He has consistently cosponsored legislation that calls for closing the SOA/ WHISC and has made several statements on the floor of the House of Representatives advocating the closure of the School. Graduates of this school have been responsible for numerous human rights violations across Latin America. Among the many victims who have died at the hands of SOA graduates were Clevelanders Sister Dorothy Kazel and Sister Jean Donovan.
In the 107th Congress, Congressman Kucinich sent a Dear Colleague letter to other House members emphasizing the similarities between the SOA and the WHISC. When the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2001 passed through Congress, it included provisions for closing the School of the Americas and then re-opening the school under a new name: the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). At the time there were serious doubts as to whether this new Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation would be substantially different from the School of the Americas. Many of the changes were simply cosmetic. For example, existing courses remained and any independent oversight was still significantly limited. Time has confirmed these doubts.
In the 106th Congress, when the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2001 was debated on the House floor, Congress voted by a 204 to 214 margin against an amendment to close the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning. Congressman Kucinich voted in favor of this amendment. Later, he voted against the Defense Authorization Bill because of a number of concerns about the legislation.
Despite the narrow failure of the measure to close the School, there is reason to be encouraged that the SOA can eventually be shut down. Major headway was made in July 1999, when the House of Representatives passed an amendment that cut funding for the School of the Americas. Passage of this amendment was a tremendous victory for human rights defenders, and moved activists one step closer to closing the School.
The Senate passed its own version of the bill, which included funding for the School. Appointed conferees of the House and Senate met to try to resolve the differences between the two bills. Unfortunately, the compromise deleted the amendment language which cut funding for the School of Americas, and thus effectively restored funding for the school.
Congressman Kucinich voted against this conference report and spoke out on the House floor against the overall spending bill because it deleted the provision that would have canceled funding for the School of the Americas.