Congressional Quarterly NEWS POLICY Oct. 9, 2013 2:45 p.m.

m. Graham Ready to Support Egypt Aid Slowdown By Emily Cadei, CQ Roll Call An influential appropriator said Wednesday he would absolutely support an Obama administration move to cut off a chunk of military aid to Egypt, although neither he nor other leading lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been briefed on any decision. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department and foreign aid, said he is incredibly disappointed with the Egyptian militarys behavior since it ousted democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi in July, explaining that its attacks on Morsis Muslim Brotherhood organization and other dissidents risked creating a permanent insurgency. The White House, he added, needs to let military leaders know we want a good relationship with Egypt, but youve taken the country down a path that we cant support. Its pretty hard for a democracy like us, after the Arab Spring, to stand up against Mubarak but act like business as usual with al-Sisi, said Graham, referring to the longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in 2011, and the current head of the Egyptian military, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Several news outlets have reported that after several months of review, the Obama administration has decided to suspend a significant amount of the $1.3 billion in annual aid it sends to Egypts military. Administration officials, however, have kept Congress almost entirely in the dark about both their review and what they plan to do with the aid package going forward. Its total radio silence, said one House aide, who works for a relevant committee.

The aide said his staff has been working for weeks and weeks to set up a briefing with the State Department to discuss the future of Egypt aid, but Foggy Bottom has consistently rebuffed our efforts. Ive never seen an instance where State has just flat out refused to discuss an issue of such foreign policy significance, he said. Graham and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, confirmed Wednesday that they have not received a briefing from the administration on any decision on Egypt assistance, either. Corker, however, said he was not surprised by the reports that the administration will hold up some aid to Cairo. Its, generally speaking, what I thought was going to happen ... that is, a suspension of some, a continuance of those that are in our national interest, like counterterrorism and the Sinai desert, he said. In continuing the latter types of assistance, the White House is still maintaining the relationship in a pretty large way, it looks like to me, he said. The one thing Corker said he had wanted to confirm is that the U.S. military will not halt training programs for Egyptian military officers. The fact is, weve got 11,000 officers there that have been trained militarily, he said. We made a big mistake with Pakistan years ago and for a long period of time there was not that relationship, and it created some problems for us, as we all know. Symbolic Importance Few on Capitol Hill believe that the suspension of the military aid which is likely to hamper Cairos ability to make big military hardware purchases, such as Apache helicopters or F-16 fighter jets will have much tangible effect on their security. But they agree that such a move would be important politically and symbolically.

I wouldnt look at this as a tremendous leverage point, said Corker. A lot of people around here ... I think overestimated what our leverage was in the first place. Graham said he had no idea if a hold on the aid would affect the Egyptian militarys domestic calculations. The aid is symbolic of the relationship. Its not a couple billion dollars that really matters over time, he said. But, he added, If we cant continue aid, we wont support IMF loans, potentially a much bigger source of leverage, given Cairos cratering economy. We will make it very difficult for people to travel to Egypt, and a big part of their economy is tourism. And how do you get Western investment into that country? Such a deterioration in bilateral relations worries New York Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. During this fragile period we should be rebuilding partnerships in Egypt that enhance our bilateral relationship, not undermining them, Engel said in a written statement Wednesday. He acknowledged that the military has handled the recent transition clumsily, but they have begun a democratic transition which will serve the Egyptian people well in the future and have also worked to maintain regional stability. Graham was much more pessimistic about Egypts direction under al-Sisi. The path theyre taking now is a dark path for Egypt, he warned. Egypts going to have to decide what Egypt wants to do. If you want to let the military through the force of arms try to extinguish a political faction, and you want to buy arms from China and Russia, and you want to be a donor state of the Gulf Arab states, then thats a choice you make. You can go down that road, Graham continued. Or you can turn this around and allow the people through the democratic process to choose their leaders. Humberto Sanchez contributed to this report.