House Passes Money, U.N. Reform Bills With Unhelpful Provisions

By Shirl McArthur

The House passed its version of the Foreign Operations (foreign aid) appropriations bill, H.R. 3057, on June 28, and the Senate passed its version July 20. Both versions include similar money amounts for Middle East countries, but the House version also includes other provisions not designed to further the Middle East peace process. For Israel, both bills would provide $240 million in economic aid and $2.28 billion in military aid, consistent with the agreement in the mid-1990s to reduce U.S. economic aid by $120 million and increase military aid by $60 million annually. In addition, the Senate bill and the House report language would give Israel $40 million for refugee resettlement. The bills also provide for the early cash (i.e., non-accountable) transfer of the money to Israel, and say that “not less than” $595 million of the military aid can be spent in Israel, rather than in the U.S. During the Appropriations Committee markup session, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) proposed amending the report language to include a paragraph supporting the road map, saying that Israel “must remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansion,” and requiring a report from the secretary of state on Israeli settlement activity. His amendment was defeated by voice vote.

For Egypt, both versions provide $495 million in economic aid, consistent with the earlier agreement to cut economic aid by $40 million annually. The House, but not the Senate, earmarks $1.3 billion in military aid for Egypt. Aid to Egypt came under fire in both House and Senate Appropriations Committees because of Egypt’s allegedly poor record on economic and political reforms and human rights. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) even went so far as to suggest that Egypt’s military aid should be eliminated. As passed, both bills place restrictions or conditions on Egypt’s economic aid. The House bill includes provisos—offered in the Appropriations Committee by Obey to head off even tougher provisions—that, of Egypt’s economic aid, “not less than $50 million shall be used for programs to improve and promote democracy, governance, and human rights and not less than $50 million shall be used for education programs.” The Senate bill provides $35 million for democracy and governance programs and $5 million for scholarships for the American University in Cairo, plus, as a floor amendment by Brownback, $50 million for education programs. Both bills also say that, with respect to the aid for governance and democracy activities, “the organizations implementing such assistance and the specific nature of that assistance shall not be subject to the prior approval of the Government of Egypt.” In addition, the Senate bill would withhold $227.6 million of economic aid until the secretary of state reports that Egypt has met the 2005 benchmarks for reform specified in the March 20, 2005 U.S.-Egypt Memorandum of Understanding and that Egypt has agreed to the installation of a radio transmitter for Radio SAWA in Egypt.

“Not less than” $595 million of U.S. military aid can be spent in Israel, rather than in the U.S.

Neither bill specifically earmarks aid for the Palestinians. However, both bills’ report language refers to the $150 million in economic aid requested by President George W. Bush. Both bills also retain language from the emergency supplemental appropriations bill approved in May, and described in the July issue of this magazine, prohibiting direct aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA), but also providing full presidential waiver authority. They also retain language providing up to $1 million to the USAID inspector general to conduct audits and inspections. Finally, they both include from previous appropriations bills a “Palestinian Statehood” section prohibiting aid to support a Palestinian state unless the secretary of state certifies that the Palestinian leadership or governing body has been democratically elected and has met an eight-item list of conditions amounting to full peaceful relations with Israel.

For Jordan, both Senate and House bills provide $250 million in economic aid and $206 million in military aid. For Lebanon, both bills provide $40 million in economic aid, of which $6 million should be available for scholarships and support of American educational institutions in Lebanon. (These numbers in the Senate bill originally were $35 million and $4 million, but were increased as a result of an amendment on the floor by Sen. John Sununu [R-NH].) The Senate, but not the House, bill also earmarks $10 million in military aid to Tunisia.

The bills also include the perennial clauses that have been in every foreign aid appropriations bill for several years, such as the provisions barring direct or indirect aid to Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Iran, and Syria, and the one condemning the Arab League boycott of Israel. The Senate bill adds one of the old standby Jerusalem provisions, saying that for registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport, citizens born in Jerusalem may, upon request, have their place of birth recorded as Israel.

Of the other anti-Arab amendments proposed either in committee or on the floor, the only one to be adopted was the one offered in the House by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) that prohibits any assistance to Saudi Arabia. An identical amendment by Weiner to the May supplemental appropriations bill was defeated in a role-call vote. This time the amendment passed by a vote of 293-132.

The next step will be for the two versions to be reconciled by a “conference committee” composed of selected members of both houses’ appropriations committees. This should happen some time after Congress returns from its August recess. Items that are the same in both bills, such as the aid for Lebanon, are likely to be retained in the final version. What will happen to the aid for Egypt is not clear, but it is likely that the final version will include the $1.3 billion military aid earmark and some form of restriction on the economic aid.

House Appropriations Bill Includes PATRIOT Act Pinprick

The House passed its version of H.R. 2862, the appropriations bill for science and the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce on June 28. While it includes no direct Middle-East related provisions, it does include a section, offered as an amendment by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that is a small pinprick on the PATRIOT Act. It says that no funds may be used to make an application under section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 [as amended by the PATRIOT Act] “for an order requiring the production of library circulation records, patron lists, book sales records, or book customer lists.” While the press made much of the inclusion of this provision, it apparently only makes those records more difficult, not impossible, for the government to access, since there are other provisions that could be used to seek a court order.

Foreign Affairs Authorization Bill Includes Many Onerous Provisions

On July 20, the House passed H.R. 2601, the FY-06 and 07 Foreign Affairs Authorization bill. This bill has often been a vehicle for objectionable Middle-East related provisions, but this year’s House version goes even further. Among these provisions is one saying that direct aid can be provided to the PA only if the president certifies that doing so is in the U.S. national security interest AND that the PA has met a long list of requirements and reform items, mostly dealing with security, fighting terror, and ending incitement. Another provision says that the secretary of state should express the unwillingness of the U.S. to support the PA’s education programs if they continue “to include material which does not foster tolerance and peace.” There also are the perennial three provisions amounting to recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (These provisions were passed in an earlier authorization bill, and Bush effectively declared them unconstitutional and is not implementing them.)

In addition, the bill as passed includes a floor amendment offered by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) including the entire text of H.Con.Res. 144, described in detail in previous issues of this magazine, condemning “attacks on U.S. citizens by Palestinian terrorists.” The bill also includes a burdensome floor amendment offered by Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and approved by a vote of 330 to 100, saying that of the total amount of aid available to the PA, no more than 25 percent may be obligated and spent during any calendar quarter.

However, a long, new provision regarding aid to Egypt is potentially the most damaging to U.S. interests in the region. This provision, championed in the House International Relations Committee by Israel-firsters Tom Lantos (D-CA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Berkley, with the support of committee chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL), would, among other things, transfer $40 million per year for three years of military aid to economic aid; would stop the cash-flow financing program for military equipment; would make all economic aid contingent upon Egypt’s meeting a laundry list of requirements; and would take away from Egypt moneys earned in the interest-bearing account and transfer it to the Middle East Partnership Initiative.

For Lebanon there is a long section, offered in the committee markup session by Lantos, according to which, among other things, U.S. assistance “after the date of this Act may be affected if Lebanon does not make every effort to disarm militias, including Hezbollah, and to deny them re-armament.”

Finally, as a result of a floor amendment by Hyde, the bill incorporates the full text of the previously-passed U.N. Reform Act. The inclusion of this long, complicated and controversial bill (see below) makes final passage of the Foreign Affairs Authorization bill even more problematic, at least in this session of Congress. While appropriations bills must be passed, Congress isn’t always so prompt in dealing with the authorization bills, and the Senate hasn’t even begun considering its version. When it does, it will be considerably different from the House version.

House Passes U.N. Reform Bill with Pro-Israel, Anti-Palestinian Provisions

On June 17 the House passed H.R. 2745, the “Henry J. Hyde United Nations Reform Act of 2005.” The bill calls for wide-ranging reforms of the U.N. and would withhold up to half of the U.S. contribution to the world body if it fails to comply with a long list of changes. Included are several provisions seeking to strengthen Israel’s position at the U.N. and weaken Palestinian-related U.N. agencies. Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now (APN), writing in APN’s Legislative Roundup, said, “This approach reflects the view of some in Congress that many of the problems related to the Palestinians, and in particular the refugee issue, can be better solved by attacking the agencies that deliver services to them, rather than through efforts to resolve the overall Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Among the sections aimed at strengthening Israel’s position at the U.N. is one requiring the president to direct the U.S. permanent representative to use the vote and influence of the U.S. to expand the U.N.’s Western European and Others Group (WEOG) to include Israel as a permanent member with full rights. It would require the secretary of state to report to Congress every six months on the treatment of Israel in the U.N. and the inclusion of Israel in the WEOG. Also, included in the section on “anti-Semitism” at the U.N., is a requirement for the permanent representative to “continue working toward further reduction of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel resolutions” in the U.N. and its agencies.

Among the provisions aimed at weakening services for Palestinians is one saying that the U.S. “may not make a contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East in an amount greater than the highest contribution to UNRWA made by an Arab country, but may not exceed 22 percent of the total budget of UNRWA.” Another section lists five U.N. agencies dealing with Palestinians and would require the secretary of state to “conduct an audit of the functions” of these agencies and report to Congress with recommendations “for the elimination of such duplicative entities and efforts.” The provision directs that until the recommendations are adopted the U.S. should withhold from its U.N. contributions an amount proportional to the amount spent on these agencies.

The Senate has only just begun to deal with the subject of U.N. reform, and at a July 21 Senate Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns testified that the Bush administration strongly opposes congressional efforts to cut the U.S. contribution to the U.N. He urged the Senate not to follow the House’s action, saying, “It is vital that the U.S. lead at the U.N., that we have faith in the U.N., pay our dues, promote reform, and contribute to strengthen the U.N.”

Shirl McArthur, a retired foreign service officer, is a consultant in the Washington, DC area.