U.S. House Foreign Aid Panel proposes $68 million for Armenia in 2008

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid voted to allocate $68 million in fiscal year (FY) 2008 assistance to Armenia, a 48.5% increase over the President's budget request earlier this year, but less than the $75 million sought by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee also approved $6 million in direct assistance to Nagorno Karabakh, double the amount allocated in FY2007. And despite recommendations of ANCA, the subcommittee did not expand the Nagorno Karabakh aid program from solely humanitarian to developmental assistance.



As to keeping the military assistance parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the panel voted to allocate $3 million in Foreign Military Financing assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan and an additional $300,000 in International Military and Education Training. The foreign aid bill does not directly set the level of funding for the ongoing "Caspian Guard Program" in Azerbaijan. The Subcommittee also rejected efforts by Azerbaijan's lobbyists to weaken the Section 907 restriction on U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan, which was put in place more than 15 years ago as a response to Baku's ongoing blockades of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Economic assistance to Azerbaijan was set at $18 million.



"We look forward to working with our friends on Capitol Hill, both in the Senate and during the conference committee process, to bring Armenia's aid level at least to last year's level of $75 million, and to ensure full funding of our request for $10 million in humanitarian and development aid to Nagorno Karabakh," ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian said. The full House Appropriations Committee is set to consider the foreign aid bill next week.