Senate hits the brakes on Tunisia aid boost
President Barack Obama wants to almost double assistance to Tunisia, but Congress is split.
The US Senate is standing in the way of a substantial aid boost to the Arab Spring’s only potential success story.
The State Department and key House panels have agreed to almost double economic and military assistance to Tunisia following last year’s elections and the looming terrorist threats. Senate appropriators aren’t convinced, however, and approved a foreign aid bill last week that’s about $50 million below the $134 million requested by the Barack Obama administration.
House appropriators, meanwhile, easily adopted the full State Department request last month. And the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East panel held a hearing July 14 with a trio of democracy-promotion experts who jointly advocated for stepped-up US help.
“We just finished a hearing today where we heard just how important our support is at what is a potential turning point in the future development of the country,” the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., told Al-Monitor after the July 14 hearing. “I think that approach is the right one, and I hope the Senate will as well.”
