Foreign Assistance

Blogger Chan'ad Bahraini asked me about the status of the $26.2M FY2012 aid request for Bahrain shown here. I'll try my best to answer his question.

According article 1 section 9 of the US Constitution: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law."  This means that Congress needs to pass appropriations laws that allow the government to spend money.  Congress typically appropriates money one year at a time, although there are some notable exceptions.  Also, typically, government agencies submit yearly to Congress requests and justifications for their preferred amount of funding.

The $26.2M in question appears to have been requested by the US Department of State as part of their FY2012 budget request to Congress.  However, I count only $25.7M in requests in this document, so perhaps the $26.2M figure also contains some money requested elsewhere.  For the rest of this post, I'll only discuss the $25.7M request, which is for two different programs.  The first is the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, which provides loans and grants for foreign governments to either purchase arms from the US government (through the Foreign Military Sales program), or directly from commercial suppliers (through the Direct Commercial Sales program).  The second is the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, which is designed to expose civilian and military leaders of foreign countries to "the American way of life, including amongst other things, U.S. regard for democratic values, respect for individual and human rights and belief in the rule of law."

So back to the question at hand.  What is the status of the State Department's request?  Congress traditionally authorizes an overall sum of money for each of the FMF and IMET programs, and attaches a few restrictions.  In some cases, the restrictions require the money be spent in certain countries.  It seems that the State Department can allocate any funds not obligated to a specific country as they see fit (pursuant to applicable laws and regulations).  As far as I'm aware, Congress has not yet passed an FY2012 appropriations bill for the State Department.  The US Government's 2012 fiscal year began on October 1, 2011.  So far in FY2012, the State Department has been funded by three different Continuing Resolutions (short-term appropriations bills passed when Congress cannot agree on a longer-term bill).  The funding from the latest resolution is set to run out on December 16, 2011.

Congress is considering an FY2012 appropriation bill for the State Department.  The bill allocates $105,788,000 for International Military Education and Training, with no obligations to a specific country (pp47-8).  The State Department requested $109,954,000 overall for the IMET program, of which $700,000 would be for Bahrain.  As observed by POMED (the Project On Middle East Democracy), the proposed FY2012 appropriations bill adds Bahrain to a list of countries that can only receive IMET aid "through the regular notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations."  I have been unable to figure out what this means, although POMED seems to think it means that Congress must be notified, and must also approve of the aid.

The bill also allocates $5,346,000,000 for the Foreign Military Financing program.  $3,075,000,000 is specifically obligated to Israel, $1,300,000,000 to Egypt, and $300,000,000 to Jordan (pp48-52).  This would seem to leave upwards of $600M that is not obligated to a specific country. The State Department requested $5,550,463,000, of which $25,000,000 would be for Bahrain.  Just like for IMET, Bahrain is included in a list of countries that can only receive FMF aid "through the regular notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations."  Bahrain was apparently added to this list in the FY2011 State Department appropriations bill.

Of course, the FY2012 appropriations bill has not been signed into law yet.  Amounts can be changed, and restrictions can be added or removed as the bill proceeds through the legislative process.  Nevertheless, it seems likely that the final bill will likely contain sufficient funds not obligated to a specific country to allow the State Department to offer Bahrain the full amount of aid they requested from Congress.  However, if the "regular notification procedures of the Committee on Appropriations" require congressional approval in addition to notification, this could present a barrier to the aid.

Military Construction

Unrelated to the military aid to Bahrain, there's another Bahrain-related appropriation making its way through Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act, passed in different form by the House (lower legislative chamber) and the Senate (upper legislative chamber).  One difference is that the House's version appropriates $100,204,000 in military construction funds for the US naval base in Bahrain, while the Senate's version appropriates $0.  In the House version, the funds are divided between two projects: "Bachelor Enlisted Quarters" ($55,010,000) and "Waterfront Development Phase 4" ($45,194,000).  The projects seem to be part of the significant expansion of the US base in Bahrain announced in 2010.  Currently, the House and the Senate are reconciling the differences between the two bills, and will produce a single final version that will be voted on by each chamber.  It is worth noting that the White House has formally expressed concern to the Senate about the lack of funding for base construction in Bahrain.  The White House remarked: "Deferring or eliminating these projects could send the unintended message that the United States does not stand by its allies or its agreements."

Update 12/13/2012: House and Senate negotiators have come to a compromise on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which appropriates $55,010,000 for "Bachelors Enlisted Quarters," and $0 for "Waterfront Development Phase 4." The Joint Statement of Managers reveals that "Waterfront Development Phase 4" includes "the construction of a climate controlled warehouse, a vehicle wash rack, and a fleet recreation center."  The statement suggests that funding for phase 4 was cut over concerns about the progress and necessity of the project.  As stated in the report: "... phase 3 of the project has not yet been awarded," and "only the most critical projects ... [should be] carried out in a difficult budget environment."

Update 12/20/2012: Congress has decided to move forward with State Department appropriations through H.R. 3671, a consolidated bill that also includes appropriations for several other government departments.  The bill is currently being considered by committee, and may change substantially before it is eventually signed into law.  However, there are some noteworthy changes from the earlier version described above.  Before we get to those, it should be noted that this bill seems to define the "regular notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations."  It seems this procedure is fifteen days advance notification.  Explicit approval from the Committees is not required.  Presumably, however, if the Committees are strongly opposed to a funding obligation notified to them by the State Department, they can use legislation or other types of political pressure to dissuade the State Department.

Regardless of the procedure, Bahrain is removed from the list of countries requiring this extra step before they can receive FMF or IMET aid.  This should make it easier for Bahrain to receive US military aid.  Perhaps this is a nod to Bahrain's recent PR campaign to convince the world it's serious about addressing the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry.  However, scrutiny is maintained for "crowd control items."

... the Secretary of State should consult with the Committees on Appropriations prior to obligating funds for [crowd control] items to governments of countries undergoing democratic transition in the Middle East and North Africa

Bahrain almost certainly fits this description.  The bill also adds further scrutiny of crowd control items by requiring the Secretary of State to report to the Committees on any Direct Commercial Sales of these items to certain countries.

... not later than 90 days after enactment of this Act and 6 months thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations detailing any crowd control items, including tear gas, made available with appropriated funds or through export licenses to foreign security forces that the Secretary of State has credible information have repeatedly used excessive force to repress peaceful, lawful, and organized dissent

If the Secretary of State wants to get really technical, Bahrain might not fit this description, because many (perhaps all) of the demonstrations that were repeatedly suppressed with excessive force were not authorized by the MoI, and thus were unlawful under Bahraini law.  Note that this report to the Committees will not necessarily be accessible to the public, although perhaps it can be requested from the State Department using the Freedom of Information Act.

So, in summary, this draft changes the earlier draft by making it easier for the State Department to provide military aid to Bahrain for items other than crowd control items.  For crowd control items, this draft essentially retains the notification requirement of the previous draft (this draft uses the term "consultation" as opposed to "notification," but it's not clear there's any practical difference), and introduces a new reporting requirement for sales of these items to certain countries.