$250 M in Economic Aid to Israel Approved by Senate, House Bodies

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, each with foreign aid bills under consideration, have both approved $250 million in economic aid to Israel and Egypt. The sum is $200 million above the Nixon Administration’s previously requested aid for Israel. The Senate body also approved yesterday $100 million in military aid grants to Israel and $200 million to finance low-interest loans to Israel to buy U.S. military hardware.

One of a series of policy amendments approved by the Senate committee would phase out over a three-year period the U.S. military aid program which now goes to 48 nations. A committee source told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that the aid missions, known as Military Assistance Advisory Groups (MAAG), are currently active in 48 countries but Israel is not one of them.

The approval of the military and economic aid to Israel came as the Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee approved cuts in the military and foreign aid bills. The subcommittee slashed the Defense Department’s budget by more than $5 billion in approving a $81.9 billion appropriations bill. The Foreign Relations Committee trimmed $750 million from the $3.225 billion asked by former President Nixon for foreign aid.

ISRAEL, EGYPT UNAFFECTED BY CUTS

None of these cuts, however, apply to Israel or Egypt which were specifically named to receive the identical economic aid sums. The House committee so far has not considered military aid cuts such as proposed in the Senate. The amendment to the House foreign aid bill authorizing the $250 million for Israel and Egypt was submitted by Reps. Dante Fascell (Duffle.) and John Buchanan (R. Alva.).

The phasing out of military grants in aid will also not apply to Israel which traditionally has paid for its military purchases in the U.S. except for the $1.5 billion granted this year by former President Nixon to help cover Israel’s costs in the Yom Kippur War.

The reductions by the Senate committee and subcommittee were seen as a move by that segment of the Senate which would like to see less emphasis on heavy defense spending and more on government spending on domestic problems. It was noted here that any effort to reduce inflation, which President Ford has termed America’s public enemy number one, could not exempt military expenditures from reductions.

White House Press Secretary Jerald F. Terrorist said today that President Ford has “expressed serious disappointment at the size of the cuts” and that the President hoped “Congress will carefully analyze what the impact of reductions of that magnitude would mean to the security capabilities of the U.S.”