WASHINGTON — A budget battle between Congress and the Department of State has its first casualty — the cash settlement earmarked for the family of missionary Veronica “Roni” Bowers and her infant daughter.
On Tuesday, the U.S. House approved a $28.9 billion supplemental budget bill to provide additional funding for this year’s federal budget, but it did not include the $8 million originally set aside for the Bowers family and pilot Kevin Donaldson. The measure was approved 397–32 and forwarded to the Senate.
The legislation orders the State Department to pay the settlement out of money in its 2002 budget. But congressional officials say the State Department claims it doesn’t have the money and even if it did, it might not have the legal authority.
In April 2001, a Peruvian air force jet shot down the missionary airplane carrying the Bowers family after they were misidentified as potential drug smugglers by a CIA-operated surveillance plane. Roni and 7-month-old Charity Bowers died in the attack, but Jim Bowers, Roni’s husband, and their 6-year-old son, Cory, survived along with Donaldson.
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