Sen. Patrick Leahy has been juggling a number of high-profile balls this year — immigration reform and electronic privacy, among others — as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy also sits on the Appropriations Committee and runs the subcommittee in charge of foreign aid, where he’s been toiling away on issues ranging from regulating foreign aid to Egypt to collaborating with Cuba on scientific ventures.
While the Obama administration carefully avoided characterizing the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi as a military coup, Leahy drew up a plan to fasten additional conditions onto aid flowing from the U.S. to Egypt. The Appropriations Committee approved those conditions Thursday in the budget bill for the State Department and Foreign Operations.
President Barack Obama requested $1.3 billion for military aid to Egypt (on top of $250 million in economic assistance). The Leahy plan divvies that sum into four parts. The first 25 percent is sent over free of conditions. The second quarter is contingent on proof that the government has released political prisoners and shown dedication to setting up an “inclusive” political system. The next chunk is authorized only if there’s been a democratic election and a new government installed, and the final installment is conditioned on the government’s showing a commitment to human rights and rule of law.
The administration can bypass the first two conditions using a national security waiver, but it can’t get around the final one. Leahy also had a hand in passing similar Egypt-specific conditions in the past two budget bills, but in both years the administration sidestepped them with waivers.
In another budget bill, Leahy also got the Appropriations Committee to back an amendment allowing Cuban and American scientific outfits to carry out joint research in the realms of “disaster prevention, emergency preparedness, and natural resource protection, including for fisheries, coral reefs, and migratory species.”
In his spare time, Leahy has also been trying to tackle another issue: cluster bombs.
Along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Leahy sent a letter urging Obama to rein in the use of cluster bombs. The letter, sent July 17, is a follow-up to sister bills that the same lawmakers introduced in the Senate and the House back in February. Specifically, it asks the Pentagon to stop using cluster bombs that have a “failure rate” of more than 1 percent, and it requests an immediate review of the Pentagon’s policy on these weapons.
The Department of Defense is scheduled to stop using this type of cluster bomb by 2018 anyway, but Leahy and his allies want to get rid of them sooner. The devices have killed U.S. soldiers in the Middle East and unexploded bombs from the Vietnam era are still on the ground in Southeast Asia.
Like land mines, cluster bombs that fail to detonate run the risk of killing or maiming civilians. Leahy has beena longtime advocate of cutting back on cluster bombs.
The letter states, “Cluster munitions are indiscriminate, unreliable and pose an unacceptable danger to U.S. forces and civilians alike. The U.S. government’s cluster munitions policy is outdated and should be immediately reviewed.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story said U.S. economic aid to Egypt was $25o billion. It should have read $250 million.
