Sen. Richard Lugar (R. Ind.), the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stressed that it will be difficult to increase aid to Israel and Egypt as well as other countries because the United States is dealing with “our own budgetary constraints.”
There is “strong support” in both Congress and the Reagan Administration for aid to Israel and Egypt, Lugar said in response to questions by foreign correspondents at the Foreign Press Center here last Thursday. He noted that aid to the two countries are “related” and account for about half of the total U.S. foreign aid budget.
Lugar said the request for increased aid for the two countries comes at a time when the Administration and Congress are “grappling” with efforts to reduce the large U.S. budget deficit. He said there is a “poignancy” when members of Congress discuss foreign aid proposals with their constituents at a time when those constituents face elimination or at “best a freeze” of programs benefiting themselves.
He noted that Congress and the Administration is considering freezing every domestic program including the military budget, and is even discussing a freeze on the cost of living increase for social security recipients.
DECISION ON AID PROPOSAL WILL TAKE TIME
Lugar said that because of these problems it will take several weeks before a decision is made on the foreign aid proposal for 1986. He indicated that while Israel will probably receive the increase it wants in military aid, there may be difficulty in the economic aid proposals.
Israel has asked that military aid be increased by $700 million to $2,1 billion in 1986 and that economic aid be increased by $700 million to a total of $1,9 billion. Israel is also asking for an $800 million emergency appropriation for the current year in economic aid in addition to $1.2 billion it is receiving this year.
The Senator noted that the U.S. is aware of Israel’s “awesome financial difficulty” and has offered “friendly advice” that it believes reforms have to be made in the Israeli economy. He said while some improvements have been made, “It does not appear enough has been done.”
Lugar, at the outset of his appearance, said he believes that many of the foreign policy problems facing the U.S. this year will be economic rather than strategic. He said his Committee will hold five or six weeks of hearings to discuss both the overall foreign policy scene and specific issues. The hearings will begin January 31 with Secretary of State George Shultz testifying in the morning and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in the afternoon.
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