Foreign operations funding bills move forward.

On 28 June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3057, the fiscal year 2006 Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs Appropriations bill. This annual legislation provides funds for FMF, IMET, PKO, and other international programs. The overall funding levels contained in the bill are constrained due to the tight budget environment.

For FMF programs, the bill supports $4,442,300,000 ($146,300,000 or 3.2 percent less than the President's Budget (PB) request). It fully funds the requests for:

* Israel ($2,280,000,000);

* Egypt ($1,300,000,000); and

* Jordan ($206,000,000).

The bill provides only

* $220,000,000 for Pakistan ($80,000,000 below the PB); and

* $4,400,000 for Turkey (vice $25,000,000 in PB).

The bill includes no restrictions on FMF for Indonesia.

The House supported the PB request of $86,744,000 for IMET, and contains no restrictions on IMET for Indonesia. However, the bill prohibits all funding for Saudi Arabia.

The Senate Appropriations Committee completed its markup of its version of HR 3057 on 30 June 2005. This legislation includes robust FMF funding of $4,603,600,000 ($15,000,000 above the PB). In a separate provision, the bill adds $25,000,000 of FMF and earmarks it for the Philippines, bringing the overall FMF funding in the bill to $4,628,600,000 or $40,000,000 above the PB.

The bill fully funds the FMF requests for Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan. However, the Senate restricted FMF for Indonesia to the Navy and includes language making any other use of FMF for Indonesia subject to certifications by the Secretary of State. The bill and the accompanying report include numerous earmarks and country-specific restrictions.

* The Senate fully funds the PB request for IMET.

* The Senate has not announced the timetable for floor consideration of this bill.

Members in both houses and parties debated the wisdom of continuing FMF for Egypt. Citing Egypt's record on human rights and democracy, several members opined that Egypt should have some of their military assistance shifted to nonmilitary aid. An amendment introduced on the House floor to shift $750,000,000 from FMF to Child Survival and Health accounts was defeated.

The full text of HR 3057 is available at: http://thomas.loc/gov/home/approp/app06.html.