Secretary of State John Kerry will be making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to sell the president’s foreign aid budget for fiscal year 2017.
Kerry kicks things off Tuesday, Feb. 23, in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where lawmakers have pledged to take a close look to see if the $50.1 billion request for international affairs adequately addresses the threats from the Islamic State (IS), Iran and other US foes. The extensive use of budget-busting wartime funding, which the Obama administration wants to use for everything from confronting IS in Syria and Iraq to aid to Tunisia this year, has been a key point of contention.
Kerry then follows up with visits to House and Senate check writers on Wednesday, Feb. 24, before wrapping things up Thursday, Feb. 25, in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Pentagon officials will be following a similar route throughout the week, with hearings on their $582.7 billion request scheduled before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 25-26. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter will testify before the House appropriators on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation from Homeland Security panel member John Katko, R-N.Y., calling on the president to develop a national strategy to “combat terrorist travel.” That same day, the House will vote on a bill from fellow panel member Will Hurd, R-Texas, that would require the administration to launch a review of known instances since 2011 in which a person has traveled or attempted to travel from the United States to Iraq or Syria to join or provide material support or resources to a terrorist organization.
Iran also remains a key concern despite its apparent compliance with the nuclear-related requirements of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The Senate Armed Services emerging threats panel holds a closed briefing with top Pentagon officials about Iran’s “intelligence and unconventional military capabilities” on Wednesday, while the House Homeland Security Committee examines cyberthreats from Iran and other countries on Thursday.
And the House Foreign Affairs panel holds a hearing Wednesday on the World Intellectual Property Organization, which Middle East panel chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., has long accused of transferring US technology to Iran and North Korea.
The committee on Wednesday will also be marking up resolutions calling on Iran to do more to help find missing American Robert Levinson, encouraging the federal government to improve its technology for tracking travelers who are believed to pose a terrorism risk and pressing the Obama administration to “explore new agreements with Israel, including in the fields of energy, water, agriculture, medicine, neurotechnology and cybersecurity.” That same day, the committee’s terrorism panel holds a hearing on Boko Haram, which pledged its allegiance to IS last year.
Finally, on Thursday it’s the House intelligence panel’s turn to hear from CIA chief John Brennan and other top intelligence officials on “worldwide threats.”
By Julian Pecquet
Al-Monitor
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