MENA and the Omnibus Budget

01/29/14
Amit Paz
Middle East and North Africa
Foreign Policy, U.S. Policy, Politics and Security, Foreign Policy

On January 16, 2014, Congress passed the FY2014 omnibus budget bill, the first budget passed since December 2011 (FY2012). The bill, otherwise known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014, appropriates approximately $1.1 trillion in federal discretionary spending and fully funds the federal government’s activities through September 30, 2014.

Within the omnibus are the Department of Defense (DOD) and the State Department and foreign operations (SFOPS) appropriations for FY2014. A close look at both divisions of the bill provides insight into U.S. policy priorities for 2014. Numerous security and economic assistance provisions and restrictions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), for example, can help pinpoint where and how the U.S. government is targeting its efforts in the region. This post highlights certain allocations of security and foreign assistance to the MENA region found in the FY2014 DOD and SFOPS budgets:

Department of Defense:

  • Of the funds appropriated to the “Procurement, Defense-Wide” and ‘‘Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide” budgets, $235.3 million will be allocated to the Israeli government to continue work on the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system; $149.7 for continuing research and development of the “David Sling” Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense program; $74.7 million for “an upper-tier component to the Israeli Missile Defense Architecture;” and $44.3 million for the Arrow System Improvement Program.
  • Of funds made available to the “Operations and Maintenance, Air Force” budget, up to $209 million may be made available for the Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq (OSC-I). This office conducts “security cooperation activities in support of the Iraqi Security Forces to include providing: institutional training; ministerial and service level advisors; logistic and operations capacity building; intelligence integration; and interagency collaboration.” Other provisions include support for non-operational counterterrorism training activities.
  • Syria: Congress will maintain a prohibition on business dealings with Rosoboronexport, President Assad’s Russian arms dealer. This prohibition is subject to a detailed national security waiver.

 

State Department and Foreign Operations:

  • The State Department’s International Security Assistance budget includes $5.9 billion (of which, $530 million is designated from the OCO budget) for Foreign Military Financing (FMF), a program that supports foreign countries to procure defense articles from American weapons manufacturers, of which no less than $3.1 billion may be allocated to Israel. Egypt and Jordan are also slated to receive a considerable amount of FMF funding, with up to $1.3 billion and $300 million, respectively. These numbers are almost identical to previous budget totals over the past few years.
  • Of the countries eligible for FMF, only 10 countries are allowed to use their FMF to purchase weapons directly from vendors (Direct Commercial Contracts) without U.S. Government approval (otherwise, FMF funding is strictly limited to government-approved transactions), seven of which belong to the MENA region: Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen.
  • Egypt: Following the controversy revolving around the Obama Administration’s ambiguous response to the military’s ousting of President Morsi in July, the omnibus bill conditions all aid (with exceptions, below) to Egypt upon official certification that certain benchmarks are being met, notwithstanding any previous provisions which might otherwise restrict aid to Egypt, such as Section 7008. The Section’s new conditions state that no funding shall be provided to any “government of any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup d’état or decree or, after the date of enactment of this Act, a coup d’état or decree in which the military plays a decisive role.” The conditions are as follow:
    • Egypt must retain its strategic partnership with the U.S. and Israel and meet its obligations under the 1979 Camp David Peace Treaty.
    • Up to $250 million is designated to Egypt under the Economic Support Fund (ESF) provision, $35 million of which is reserved for higher education support.
    • Up to $1.3 billion is designated to Egypt in FMF. Prior year FMF funds are made available at the minimum rate necessary to continue existing contracts.
    • FY14 Egypt aid is subject to two tranches of democracy-conditions: $975 million may be released upon confirmation of a constitutional referendum and steps taken to support a democratic transition (with specific nods to voter participation and basic freedoms including civil society and media), and $576.8 million may be released upon confirmation of successful parliamentary and presidential elections and steps taken to govern democratically (again, stressing voter participation, election monitoring, and steps to protect human rights and the rule of law).
    • There is an exception on these restrictions for funding related to counterterrorism, border security and non-proliferation, and Sinai-related programs.
  • Jordan: In accordance with the last year of the Five Year Aid Deal signed in 2008, Jordan will continue to receive its annual package of $360 million in ESF and $300 million in FMF. In addition, up to $340 million are allotted to Jordan out of the OCO budget.
  • Palestinian Authority (PA): Strict conditions on assistance to the PA continue, including assurances the PA: remains committed to peaceful co-existence with Israel, is taking appropriate counterterrorism measures in the West Bank and Gaza, and is actively working with other countries to pursue a comprehensive peace settlement. No funding may be used to establish new operations in any part of Jerusalem. 
  • Total embassy security funding will be $2.6 billion, of which $275 million is designated from the OCO budget, in accordance with the recommendation of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board.  
  • $235 million allocated to supporting multinational peacekeeping operations, of which $36 million shall go toward supporting the Multinational Force and Observers mission in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a 29% increase from FY12 levels.
  • $40 million provided to the Complex Crises Fund, with authority to transfer up to an additional $460 million to prevent and respond to complex crises globally.
  • Despite a request of $580 million in funding for the Middle East and North Africa Incentive Fund (touted as an Arab Spring transition fund), MENA-IF receives no funding in the FY2014 budget (MENA-IF  was denied funding in FY2012 as well).
  • Up to $200 million may be transferred from the DOD Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide budget to the Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF), a joint DOD-State Department pilot project whose purpose includes administering counterterrorism and rule of law programs. In addition, though the State Department’s request for the explicit funding of GSCF was denied, it is authorized to divert up to $25 million to the GSCF from INCLE, PKO, and FMF budgets.
  • Doubling of Section 451 contingency funding from $50 million in FY12 to up to $100 million. These funds give Presidential authority to quickly respond to unforeseen events.