Washington briefing: Obama’s Armenia aid request: less than Congress, more than Bush

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday May 08, 2009

President Obama presents his budget request to Congress.

Washington - In his first budget proposal to Congress detailed on May 7, President Barack Obama largely continued George W. Bush's policy of requesting a reduction in U.S. assistance to Armenia.

The Obama administration requested $30 million in aid to Armenia in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, down from $48 million allocated by Congress in 2009 and $58 million in 2008. However, the request is larger than the $24 million requested by the Bush administration in January 2008 before that amount was doubled by congressional appropriators.

The request also suggested $3.45 million in military aid to Armenia and $4.9 million requested for Azerbaijan, an approach long criticized and repeatedly revised by Congress. Azerbaijan would also get $22.12 million in non-military aid, up from less than $19 million spent in 2008–9.

Congressional appropriators can significantly alter these figures later in the budget process.

Last March, co-chairs of the congressional Armenian caucus Reps. Frank Pallone (D.-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.) already made their Armenia aid recommendations, including $70 million in economic and $5 million in military aid, and a further $10 million for Nagorno-Karabakh.

The administration also requested a total of more than $322 million in aid to Georgia. This includes $80 million in regular military and non-military aid for 2010, and the rest in 2009 supplemental assistance in furtherance of $1 billion in U.S. aid promised after Georgia's brief war with Russia.

Overall, while cutting other programs the administration requested an increase in foreign aid to a total of $36.5 billion, including more than $762 million for former Soviet republics and $1.4 billion in Millennium Challenge programs around the world.

As before, the bulk of foreign military funding will go to Israel ($2.775 billion) and Egypt ($1.3 billion). Afghanistan and Pakistan would get the biggest non-military aid packages, at $2.2 and $1.1 billion, respectively.