The House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to act later this week on a foreign aid authorization bill containing up to $300 million in military purchase credits for Israel. The sum is identical to that contained in the Senate’s $1.8 billion foreign aid authorization bill that was defeated last night. The Senate measure also contained $85 million in supportive economic assistance for Israel. The House bill has $50 million for that purpose.
The Israeli credits were no issue in the defeat of the Senate bill. It was killed after a bi-partisan coalition of anti-war Senators attached an amendment requiring the withdrawal of all US forces from Vietnam in exchange for the release of US POWs.
Capitol Hill sources indicated today that the Senate would wait for the House measure to reach it instead of writing a new foreign aid bill of its own. If the House bill gets by the Foreign Affairs Committee It is likely to come up for a vote next week.
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