A commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Frost-Solomon Task Force, which provided assistance from the U.S. Congress to new parliaments in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1990 to 1996, will be held in Warsaw June 7.
The event is sponsored by the Senate and Sejm of Poland and the House Democracy Partnership (HDP), a successor organization to the Frost-Solomon Task Force.
Among those attending the commemoration will be U.S. Rep. David Price, D-NC, chairman of HDP; former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-TX, for whom the task force is named along with the late U.S. Rep. Gerald B. H. Solomon, R-NY; and Dan Mulhollan, director of the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
The commemoration will be followed by a Parliamentary Staff Institute, June 8-11, focusing on the development and strengthening of parliamentary research services. Attendees at the institute will be members of parliament and staff from 11 member parliaments of HDP as well as representatives from some of the original Frost-Solomon countries. The institute is being organized by HDP in cooperation with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Frost-Solomon Task Force provided assistance to parliaments in 12 emerging democracies – Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Representatives from 10 of those countries will attend the commemoration. The task force’s programs were based on the principle that successful democratic transitions in the former communist countries depended on the establishment of effective democratic legislatures.
The programs, administered by the Congressional Research Service, provided more than 1,200 computers, printers, faxes and other office equipment; more than 9,300 books and other materials for parliamentary libraries; and training programs for more than 2,200 staff and members. “[A] lasting positive impact on the democratic work of parliaments can be demonstrated in all of the countries,” according to the task force’s final report, published in 1998.
The House Democracy Partnership is comprised of a bipartisan group of 20 members of the U.S. House who work to promote and support the development of democratic governments around the world. It is co-chaired by Price and U.S. Rep. David Drier, R-CA. Attending the staff institute are representatives from HDP’s partner legislatures in Afghanistan, East Timor, Georgia, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Mongolia and Pakistan.
NDI is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government. More information about the dialogue and about NDI is available at www.ndi.org.
