The Senate is preparing to begin work Tuesday or Wednesday on the $7,535,000,000 Foreign Aid Bill, which contains grants to Israel. The Senate version of the measure, approved late Friday by the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees, calls for less aid to Israel than is contained in the House bill.
The measure as approved by the Senate groups makes available to President Truman $40,000,000 to aid refugees settling in Israel. A similar amount would be available for Arab refugees. These figures represent a cut of $10,000,000 each from the House version. The U.S. contribution to the International Refugee Organization was cut from $30,000,000 to $10,000,000.
The bill now ready for Senate action provides a total of $518,750,000 for the Near East and Africa. The sum of $122,500,000 would be for economic and technical aid for Africa and the Near East outside of Iran, Greece and Turkey. This is an across-the-board 30 percent cut below the House version. Military aid to the Arab-Israel area would be limited to 10 percent of the $396,250,000 made available for arms to Iran, Greece and Turkey.
The House and Senate versions of the bill represent a one billion dollar cut below the figure requested by President Truman. The President has made it clear that he will attempt to have the cut restored. Senate leaders hope to finish work on the measure by the end of this week. However, the Upper Chamber seldom approves large foreign aid bills in such a short time. After the Senate finishes voting, a House-Senate conference committee will iron out differences and submit the bill to both Houses for a final vote. Then the whole process starts again as Congress goes to work on the bill to appropriate the money.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
