Congress will begin work next week on a Mutual Security Appropriations Bill which includes approximately the same amount of aid for Israel as contained in last year’s legislation.
An authorization bill favoring Israel has already been acted upon by Congress but the appropriations bill is necessary to actually make the authorized funds available. Israel is to get somewhere between $65,000,000 and $70,000,000 in economic aid, $1,500,000 in Point Four funds, and will share in $50,000,000 of military funds ear-marked for Israel and the Arab states to be dispensed at the discretion of the President.
As Congress prepares to debate the appropriation measure, reductions of a billion or more dollars have been suggested. It is impossible to tell at this point whether such cuts would involve the proposed sums for Israel because the reductions may be selective in nature rather than across-the-board. Selective cuts may be applied against areas outside of the Near East without reducing the amount for Israel.
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