House conservatives call for stripping aid to Libya, Egypt from spending bill
By Russell Berman - 09/12/12 02:20 PM ET
A group of House conservatives is calling for foreign aid to Libya and Egypt to be stripped from a six-month federal funding bill set for a vote on Thursday.
A handful of lawmakers voiced outrage Wednesday at the Obama administration’s response to the attacks on the U.S. embassies in those countries, and suggested the inclusion of foreign aid could influence their votes.
“It makes it easier to vote ‘no’ ” on the spending bill, freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) said at a press event with conservative House Republicans at the Capitol.
The House on Thursday plans to vote on a continuing resolution that would extend federal funding through March, preventing a government shutdown before the election or during a lame-duck session of Congress this fall. While conservatives pushed to avoid a shutdown fight, they have also raised alarms about the inclusion of additional welfare funding in the bill.
“It would show a tremendous amount of leadership from this administration, in light of the recent developments, if the president were to come back and demand that the amount of money that is in the [continuing resolution] for Libya and Egypt be stripped. That would be tremendous leadership,” Landry said.
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Lawmakers said they planned to bring up the issue at a meeting of the conservative Republican Study Committee on Wednesday, although they acknowledged it would be difficult to strip the foreign aid in so short an amount of time.
Read More>http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affa...-spending-bill
Pelosi: I Still Support U.S. Aid to Egypt
1:56 PM, Sep 13, 2012 • By JOHN MCCORMACK
During a press conference in the Capitol on Thursday, Nancy Pelosi said that she opposes efforts to end U.S. aid to Egypt.
"If they’re suggesting we should cut off assistance to Egypt," Pelosi said of some Republicans in Congress, "I don’t agree with that."
"I think that the administration and even our friends in the region have said it’s really important for all parties, that is the private sector as well as the public sector, to invest in Egypt, because its economic success is important to the stability of the country, and that's important to the stability of the region, and the world, and global peace,” said Pelosi, leader of the House Democrats.
The United States will send $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt this year.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...pt_652294.html
