CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – APPROPRIATIONS: STATE-FOREIGN OPERATIONS
July 26, 2011 – 12:26 p.m.
House’s State Spending Measure Would Set Restrictions on Foreign Aid
By Emily Cadei and Jonathan Broder, CQ Staff
House appropriators have included a long and stringent list of restrictions on foreign aid in their fiscal 2012 spending bill, including tough conditions on assistance to countries in the Middle East and South Asia and curbs on funds going to a number of multilateral institutions.
Like the State Department authorization bill (
It also conditions funding for the United Nations, blocks funds to several U.N. bodies, rescinds money the United States has pledged to the International Monetary Fund and slices funding for several other international financial institutions.
“This bill includes strong and significant oversight measures to keep a tight grip on the management of these funds, and helps ensure that each and every dollar is being spent wisely and for the benefit of the American people,” Appropriations Chairman
The bill, released Tuesday, is scheduled for a Wednesday morning markup by the State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee.
It provides $47.2 billion for fiscal 2012 programs, including $7.6 billion for civilian programs in Afghanistan and Iraq. The total is $7.4 billion less than President Obama’s request and roughly the same as the top-line number House appropriators laid out this spring.
Democrats met the bill with consternation. “At a time when the demands we place on our diplomatic and development workforce are increasing, it is shortsighted to downsize the Department of State and USAID,” said
Democrats are likely to hold off on amendments until the full committee takes up the bill, which is scheduled for next week.
According to a committee aide, the bill cuts nearly $700 million in aid to Pakistan, where relations have taken a nosedive in recent months. The remaining assistance would be subject to conditions similar to those in State Department authorization bill; Islamabad would have to make demonstrable progress in combating extremist groups, investigate how Osama bin Laden was able to hide out in Pakistan and allow U.S. military trainers to return to the country.
The Obama administration suspended $800 million in military aid to Pakistan earlier this month, citing Islamabad’s lack of participation in U.S.-led training programs to pursue militants in lawless border regions. But it has pushed to maintain all economic aid, which was authorized through the multi-year, $7.5 billion 2009 law known as Kerry-Lugar-Berman (PL 111-73), named after its Senate and House sponsors.
Advocates of further conditions say the United States should better leverage the billions of dollars it gives to Pakistan. Critics of that approach, including many Democrats, say it will only feed into Pakistani perceptions that Washington is a fair-weather ally interested only in its own counterterrorism priorities.
Concerns Over Middle East
The spending bill also shows lawmakers’ concerns over the shifting political landscape in the Middle East and the makeup of new governments that will be receiving aid.
House’s State Spending Measure Would Set Restrictions on Foreign Aid
The measure fully funds aid to Egypt but conditions both military and economic assistance on the secretary of State’s certification that the government is adhering to its peace treaty with Israel, which received full funding with no strings attached.
Other conditions on economic aid include certification that the government is dismantling tunnels that run from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and that the government is not controlled by foreign terrorists. Depending on the definition, that could include the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist Islamic party that was banned under dictator Hosni Mubarak but has been ascendant since protests forced Mubarak from power in February.
The bill would also place conditions on economic aid to the Palestinian Authority, which has embarked on a controversial reconciliation process with the militant Palestinian group Hamas; all assistance to Lebanon, whose new government is backed by the militant group Hezbollah; and all aid to Yemen, whose government is on the verge of collapse.
Targeting the United Nations
The legislation also takes aim at one of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s favorite targets: the United Nations. The bill provides a total of $2.9 billion for U.N. dues and peacekeeping operations, $600 million less than Obama’s request. It would prohibit funding for the U.N. Human Rights Council, a body that includes many countries notorious for human rights abuses, as well as the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. And it conditions 30 percent of funds for the United Nations on making audits available to the U.S. government.
Like the State Department authorization bill, the appropriations measure also includes a provision to prohibit international health care providers who receive U.S. assistance from performing or promoting abortions, even if such recipients use their own funds. Over the years, the provision has become a political football, appearing in the annual State Department authorization and appropriations measures when Republicans control the White House and disappearing when Democrats are in control.
Lowey introduced a measure Tuesday that would permanently repeal the abortion provision, known by critics as the “global gag rule.”
With Republicans controlling the House, the measure has little chance of passing. But with the Democratic Senate and Obama opposed to the abortion provision, it is unlikely to survive in the final version of the bill.
International Monetary Fund
Another multilateral organization in the panel’s sights is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The bill rescinds the $108 billion tranche of funding the United States committed to in 2009 to help expand the financial institution’s borrowing capacity. The IMF has been a key player in responding to the international banking collapse and the European Union sovereign debt crisis, but it has alienated some Republicans with its bailouts of countries such as Greece, which they consider to be irresponsible.
Were it to become law, such a move would likely send shocks through the international financial community and dramatically curb the United States’ influence in the IMF.
House Republicans did agree to fully fund the Obama administration’s request for Iraq, including money requested in both the base budget and the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, the separate spending request for war-related costs.
The bill also meets the State Department’s request for aid for Afghanistan, minus $850 million in the pipeline from the last fiscal year that has been held up due to Kabul’s failure to meet IMF spending benchmarks.
House’s State Spending Measure Would Set Restrictions on Foreign Aid
War-related spending, however, has cut into available funds for the department’s traditional diplomatic, developmental and humanitarian programs.
Development assistance in the House bill totals $2.1 billion, $800 million less than the administration requested, and economic support funding is $4.1 billion, $1.8 billion less than requested.