A House panel unveiled a bill Monday that would block U.S. aid to
Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority unless the Obama
administration reassures Congress that they are cooperating in the
worldwide fight against terrorism.
The legislation is a direct
challenge to President Barack Obama and his foreign policy authority,
and comes as the House is looking at significant cuts in the annual
budget for the State Department and foreign assistance. The House
Foreign Affairs Committee will consider the bill authorizing the money
on Wednesday. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the
panel, released an initial draft on Monday.
While the House is
likely to approve the bill, its prospects in the Democratic-controlled
Senate are dim. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry,
D-Mass., is likely to reject many of the bill's provisions.
The
bill would bar aid to Pakistan unless the secretary of state can
certify to Congress that Islamabad is "fully assisting the United
States with investigating the existence of an official or unofficial
support network in Pakistan for Osama bin Laden, including by providing
the United States with direct access to Osama bin Laden's relatives in
Pakistan and to Osama bin Laden's former compound in Abottabad."
In
May, U.S. forces killed bin Laden while he was living at a compound not
far from Pakistan's equivalent of West Point, raising questions among
lawmakers about what the Pakistanis knew.
Aid to the Palestinian
Authority would be contingent on the secretary certifying that no
member of Hamas or any other terrorist organization was serving in a
policy position in a ministry, agency or other entity. The two rival
Palestinian leaderships — the secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas —
reconciled and are trying to form a new government. Israel and the U.S.
both consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
The Obama administration has requested some $550 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority.
Assistance
for Egypt would be based on whether its new government "is not directly
or indirectly controlled by a foreign terrorist organization." The bill
would also direct the administration to reassure Congress that Egypt is
searching out and destroying any smuggling network and tunnels between
the country and the Gaza strip.
Israeli and American officials
fear that Hamas is moving weapons and militants into the Palestinian
territory through tunnels along the Gaza border.
Aid to Lebanon
would be contingent on the secretary certifying to Congress that no
member of Hezbollah serves in a policy position in a ministry, agency
or entity in the government.
The bill also takes several steps to
help protect Peace Corps volunteers, including training on reducing the
risks of sexual assault. In May, the committee heard testimony from
three Peace Corps volunteers who were raped while serving overseas and
the mother of a fourth who was murdered in Benin.
A separate
spending bill likely will provide $40 billion for foreign operations
next year, $9 billion less than the current amount and $11 billion less
than Obama requested. AP
