Bill Deducts Envoys’ Fines From U.S. Aid

House Republicans say they’ve come up with a new way to collect overdue parking fines from deadbeat diplomats - take it out of their home country’s U.S. foreign aid payments.

A provision in the 1998 foreign aid bill, up for consideration this week, would cut aid to nations that ignore tickets collected by their diplomats in New York and other American cities.

“In New York City alone, U.N. diplomats amassed more than 130,000 unpaid traffic tickets totaling more than $5.3 million during 1996,” Rep. Pete King, R.-N.Y., the author of the measure, said Monday.

King’s plan, which would deduct an amount equal to 110 percent of unpaid parking tickets from the offending nation’s foreign aid, has the backing of Rep. Benjamin Gilman, the New York Republican who chairs the House International Relations Committee.

New York City has long complained about foreign diplomats at the United Nations who amass huge sums of unpaid parking tickets and avoid fines by hiding behind a shield of diplomatic immunity.

“Nothing ticks off a New York driver like seeing a big limo with diplomatic plates parked in front of a fire hydrant or in a loading zone,” said King.