S-1071               _______________________________________________

                                           SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 115

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State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By Senators McDermott, Williams, Moore, Wojahn and Talmadge

Read first time 2/7/85 and referred to Committee on Governmental Operations.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, The United States government has in the past given approximately thirty million dollars in covert military assistance and training to the counter revolutionaries or "contras" in Nicaragua; and

          WHEREAS, The 1985 session of the United States Congress will consider shortly whether or not to resume such aid; and

          WHEREAS, The contras, operating from Honduras, have been waging a war on the Nicaraguan economy which has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, and the loss of thousands of lives; and

          WHEREAS, The nature of this war has been to raid refugee camps, to destroy public and private property, and to disrupt the economic structure of the country; and

          WHEREAS, The effect of this war has been to increase Nicaraguan cooperation with, and reliance on, the Soviet Union and Cuba for military and economic aid, the exact result the citizens of the United States do not want;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that Congress deny all government funding of the contras, and that Congress takes steps to ensure that its legislative intent is carried out, and that the administration not aid the contras through unauthorized means.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.