Congress Watch, Pages 26-28

Congress Passes Foreign Aid, Defense Appropriations Bills With Few Surprises

By Shirl McArthur

As expected, the State Department and Foreign Operations (foreign aid) appropriations bill for FY ”˜10 (which began Oct. 1, 2009) was folded into an “Omnibus” bill, H.R. 3288. The ensuing Conference Report, H.Rept. 111-366, was passed by both Houses of Congress in December and signed by President Barack Obama on Dec. 16 as P.L. 111-117. The separate Defense appropriations bill, H.R. 3326, was passed by both Houses, also in December, and was signed by Obama on Dec. 19 as P.L. 111-118.

The foreign aid portion (Title VII) of the Omnibus bill includes a new section, Section 7042, giving overall funding levels for Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza. Interestingly, in each case the level given is more than the total of the amounts under the earlier, separate titles. For those countries the following tabulation will give the Sec. 7042 amount first, followed by the individual amounts either earmarked or included in the accompanying report language. Appropriations for the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Pakistan—and including the FY ’10 military aid for Israel, Egypt and Jordan included in the previous supplemental appropriations bill (see the August 2009 Washington Report, p. 28)—are:

Israel: $2.8 billion, including $25 million for refugee assistance and $2.775 billion in military grants—including the $555 million military aid for FY ”˜10 included in the previous supplemental appropriations bill—with $729.825 million (the usual 26.3 percent) of the military aid available for procurement from Israeli rather than U.S. firms.

Afghanistan: $2.457 billion, including $2.037 billion in economic aid and $420 million for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE).

Egypt: $1.552 billion including the $260 million military aid in the previous supplemental bill, plus not less than $1.295 billion (Sec. 7042), consisting of $250 million in economic aid, up to $50 million of which is for “an endowment to further the shared interests of the U.S. and Egypt”; $1 million for INCLE; $1.9 million for International Military Education and Training (IMET), and $1.04 billion for military grants.

Pakistan: $1.408 billion, including $1.035 billion in economic aid; $130 million for INCLE; $5 million for IMET; and $238 million in military aid, with authority to transfer up to $60 million from the economic aid heading in this and prior acts.

Jordan: $692.95 million, including the $150 million in military aid in the previous supplemental bill, plus not less than $542.95 million (Sec. 7042), consisting of $363 million in economic aid; $1.5 million for INCLE; and $150 million in military aid.

West Bank and Gaza: $502.9 million (Sec. 7042), including $400.4 million in economic aid, of which $150 million may be for direct cash transfer, and $100 million for INCLE.

Iraq: Up to $466.8 million (Sec. 7042), including $382.5 million in economic aid, of which $50 million is for “ministerial capacity development,” and $52 million for INCLE.

Lebanon: Not less than $283.3 million (Sec. 7042), including $109 million in economic aid, of which $12.2 million is for scholarships for students in Lebanon; $20 million for INCLE; and $100 million in military aid.

Yemen: $40 million, including $35 million in development assistance and $5 million in economic aid.

Tunisia: $20 million, including $2 million in economic and $18 million in military aid.

Turkey: $5 million for IMET.

Morocco: $3 million in economic aid.

The measure also includes among the “general” provisions the various perennial ones, including those opposing the Arab boycott, prohibiting aid to Saudi Arabia (but with full presidential waiver authority), prohibiting funds to support a Palestinian state (again, with waiver authority), and placing far-reaching restrictions, including extensive audit requirments, on aid to the West Bank and Gaza. Also included is the provision from the earlier supplemental bill prohibiting aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), with presidential waiver authority, and aid to a PA-Hamas power-sharing government unless the president certifies that such government, “and all its ministers or such equivalent, has publicly accepted and is complying with” the principles of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and agreeing to all previous agreements.

Regarding Iran, another general provision prohibits the U.S. Export-Import Bank from authorizing any new guarantee, insurance, or extension of credit for any project controlled by an energy producer or refiner that continues to provide Iran with significant petroleum resources, contribute to Iran’s capability to import refined petroleum resources, or allow Iran to maintain or expand its domestic production of refined petroleum resources. The provision includes presidential waiver authority.

Defense Appropriations Bill

The $626 billion Defense appropriations bill includes an earmark of $202.434 million for “Israel Cooperative Programs,” including $80.092 million for the short-range missile defense program, $50.036 million for an upper-tier component to the Israel missile defense architecture, and $72.306 million for the Arrow missile defense program.

Included in the measure’s general provisions is one saying that “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this or any other act shall be obligated or expended by the U.S. government” to establish any military installation for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of U.S. armed forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Resistance to Obama’s Decision to Send More Troops to Afghanistan

President Obama’s long-awaited Dec. 1 announcement that he had decided to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, while hoping to begin troop withdrawal by July 2011, was not well received by congressional Democrats or Republicans alike. Democratic reaction was either muted or openly opposed to sending more troops to fight an unpopular war, while Republicans largely supported the additional troops but were critical of setting a target date for troop withdrawal.

Among those speaking in opposition to the troop increase were Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ron Paul (R-TX), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). McGovern commended Obama for “thinking long and hard” about the decision, but said that “unfortunately...the president has reached the wrong conclusion.” Kucinich has said he planned to offer a resolution in January calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. But H.R. 3699, which would “prohibit any increase in the numbers of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan,” introduced in October by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), has gained only four co-sponsors and now has 28, including Lee.

Included in the Defense appropriations bill mentioned above is $128.2 billion for the continuing U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since this is not enough to support the additional troops, it is widely expected that Obama will soon submit a supplemental request for between $30 billion and $40 billion more. But Obama may have to rely on Republican support to get a supplemental bill passed, because as many as half the House Democrats may oppose it. In urging House Democrats to vote for the previous supplemental bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly promised that she would not ask them again to vote for additional war funding, and on Dec. 16 she said she would not ask her colleagues to back wars they don’t support, and that “the president is going to have to make his case.”

Iran Sanctions Bills Make Major Progress

Over State Department objections, on Dec. 15 the House passed H.R. 2194, the AIPAC-pushed bill introduced last April by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that would increase the level of financial penalties against Iran and would include as sanctionable activities aiding in the development of Iran’s petroleum resources or providing or facilitating the export of refined petroleum resources to Iran. When passed, the bill had 344 co-sponsors, including Berman. The roll call vote was 412-12, with four voting “present” (i.e., abstaining). Those voting no were Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), John Conyers (D-MI), John Duncan (R-TN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Kucinich, Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Paul, and Pete Stark (D-CA). Abstaining were Reps. E.B. Johnson (D-TX), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI), Lee, and Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Meanwhile, in the Senate on Dec. 8, Democratic and Republican leaders sent a notice to all senators seeking unanimous consent that the Senate take up and pass S. 2799, the new, comprehensive Iran sanctions bill introduced in November by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). It is, in effect, an “omnibus” bill, encompassing the measures included in previously introduced sanctions bills, plus some new ones. Among its many sanctions clauses are ones that would expand the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 to cover a range of financial institutions and businesses and extend sanctions to oil and gas pipelines and tankers; impose new sanctions on entities involved in exporting certain refined petroleum products to Iran or building Iran’s domestic refining capacity; impose a broad ban on direct imports from Iran to the U.S. and exports from the U.S. to Iran, exempting food and medicines; strengthen the president’s ability to freeze the assets of Iranians active in weapons proliferation or terrorism; enable Americans to divest from energy firms doing business with Iran; and strengthen controls to stop the export of sensitive technology to Iran. It also “urges” the president to consider imposing sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran or any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities, and expresses the “sense of Congress” that the U.S. should target with economic sanctions Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Senate leaders were unsuccessful, at least in December, in getting unanimous consent to consider and pass the bill. Perhaps a major reason for this was the Dec. 11 letter from Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA) expressing his “concern about the timing and content of this legislation.” Steinberg said he was concerned that this legislation “might weaken rather than strengthen international unity,” and that it “could cause unintended foreign policy consequences.” Never mind. On Christmas Eve, right before the Senate adjourned for the holidays, Kerry, Dodd, and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke on the Senate floor supporting the bill. “I am committed to getting this legislation on the floor sometime after we return in January,” Reid said.

Iran’s Repression of Dissidents Spawns New Congressional Measures

The Iranian government’s harsh repression of opposition demonstrations led to four new bills, two each in the House and Senate. In the House Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and Bob Inglis (R-SC) on Dec. 14 introduced H.R. 4301 “to support the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people by enhancing their ability to access the Internet and communications services.” Also on Dec. 14, Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Delahunt introduced H.R. 4303 “to enhance U.S. sanctions against Iran by targeting Iranian government officials, prohibiting federal procurement contracts with persons that provide censorship or surveillance technology to the government of Iran, and providing humanitarian and people-to-people assistance to the Iranian people.”

In the Senate, on Nov. 19 Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), with six co-sponsors, introduced S.Res. 355 “expressing the sense of the Senate that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has systematically violated its obligations to uphold human rights provided for under its constitution and international law.” It was considered the same day and passed unanimously. On Dec. 22 Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE), with nine co-sponsors, introduced S.Res. 386 “condemning the government of Iran for restricting and suppressing freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of expresion, and freedom of assembly, and for its human rights abuses.” It, too, was considered the same day and passed unanimously.

Two Constructive Letters Regarding Gaza Sent to Clinton, Obama

On Dec. 22, 33 House members, led by Reps. Moran and Inglis, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressing their “concern with Israel’s ban on travel between the West Bank and Gaza as it relates to Gazan students who wish to study in the West Bank.” The letter notes that Israel has banned Palestinian students from Gaza from studying in the West Bank “despite the recommendation of the Bertini Report, incorporated into the ”˜Road Map’” and despite the Israeli High Court of Justice ruling that such students “should be allowed to study in the West Bank because it was ”˜likely to have positive humane implications.’” The letter concludes by urging Clinton to “raise this issue with the Israeli government, making clear that the U.S. considers access to higher education, including in the West Bank, a crucial opportunity for Palestinians in Gaza.”

In late January at least 40 House members, led by Reps. Ellison and McDermott, wrote to President Obama expressing their “great concern about the ongoing crisis in Gaza.” The letter calls the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt “de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza strip,” and it asks Obama “to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts.” It concludes with “the people of Gaza, along with all the peoples of the region, must see that the U.S. is dedicated to addressing the legitimate security needs of the State of Israel and to ensuring that the legitimate needs of the Palestinian people are met.”

Shirl McArthur is a retired U.S. foreign service officer living in the Washington, DC area.

SIDEBAR

FY 2010 U.S. Foreign Aid Totals

Israel $3,002.434ˆ* million
Afghanistan 2,457 million
Egypt 1,555.2* million
Pakistan 1,408 million
Jordan^”  692.95* million
West Bank and Gaza 502.9 million
Iraq^” ”  466.8 million
Lebanon^”  283.3 million
Yemen 40 million
Tunisia 20 million
Turkey 5 million
Morocco 3 million

ˆincludes $202.434 million in defense apppropriations
*includes advance FY ’10 funding provided in the June 2009 supplemental appropriations bill
^” not less than ^” ” up to