{ "id": "R46344", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "R", "number": "R46344", "active": true, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov, EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source_dir": "crsreports.congress.gov", "title": "U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East: Historical Background, Recent Trends, and the FY2022 Request", "retrieved": "2021-10-22T04:04:08.662524", "id": "R46344_4_2021-09-07", "formats": [ { "filename": "files/2021-09-07_R46344_4af443b5f0d5bad178947ddb221a2d29324a6a43.pdf", "format": "PDF", "url": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46344/4", "sha1": "4af443b5f0d5bad178947ddb221a2d29324a6a43" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/2021-09-07_R46344_4af443b5f0d5bad178947ddb221a2d29324a6a43.html" } ], "date": "2021-09-07", "summary": null, "source": "CRSReports.Congress.gov", "typeId": "R", "active": true, "sourceLink": "https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R46344", "type": "CRS Report" }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 624096, "date": "2020-05-05", "retrieved": "2020-05-19T13:47:18.753788", "title": "U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East: Historical Background, Recent Trends, and the FY2021 Request", "summary": "Since 1946, the United States has provided an estimated total of $346 billion (obligations in current dollars) in foreign assistance to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. For FY2021, overall bilateral aid requested for MENA countries amounts to $6.6 billion, or about 15% of the State Department\u2019s International Affairs budget request. The State Department estimates that the Middle East stands to receive 42% of the geographically specific assistance in the budget request, more than any other region. As in previous years, more than 90% would support assistance for Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. The region also receives a sizable portion of annual emergency humanitarian assistance appropriations, which are not included in the region-specific aid figures.\nPolicy changes during the Trump Administration, coupled with legislation passed by Congress, have halted various types of U.S. aid to the Palestinians. The Administration withheld FY2017 bilateral economic assistance, reprogramming it elsewhere, and ceased requesting bilateral economic assistance after Palestinian leadership broke off high-level political contacts to protest President Trump\u2019s December 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital. After Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act of 2018 (ATCA, P.L. 115-253), the Palestinian Authority (PA) ceased accepting any U.S. aid in January 2019, including security assistance and legacy economic assistance from prior fiscal years. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, some Members of Congress are concerned that, due to the uncertainty surrounding the status of U.S. aid to the Palestinians, humanitarian aid to combat the disease may not reach the Palestinian population. In April, the Administration announced that it would provide $5 million in International Disaster Assistance (IDA) to the West Bank as part of its global COVID-19 response.\nThe foreign aid data in this report is based on a combination of resources, including the U.S. Agency for International Development\u2019s (USAID) U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants (also known as the \u201cGreenbook\u201d), appropriations data collected by the Congressional Research Service from the State Department and USAID, data extrapolated from executive branch agencies\u2019 notifications to Congress, and information published annually in the State Department and USAID Congressional Budget Justifications. For foreign aid terminology and acronyms, see the glossary appended to the report.\nIn order to more accurately compare the Administration's FY2021 foreign assistance request to previous years' appropriations, aid figures in this report (except where otherwise indicated) refer only to funding that is administered by the State Department or USAID and requested for individual countries or regional programs. While this represents the majority of U.S. assistance to the Middle East, it is important to note that there are several other sources of U.S. aid to the region, such as International Disaster Assistance (IDA), Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA), and Transition Initiatives (TI). Likewise, other U.S. federal entities\u2014such as the Departments of Defense, Commerce, and the Treasury, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation\u2014administer additional types of assistance. Funding for such activities is generally not requested for individual countries and regions, and it is largely excluded here. \nMuch of the data presented in this report pre-dates the global spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19. All MENA countries, particularly poorer nations that receive foreign assistance, are expected to be affected by the outbreak; however, the extent and scale of the damage to public health and economies across the region is unknown, as is the pandemic\u2019s full impact on U.S. aid programs. \nAs of mid-April 2020, the Administration had allocated some emergency humanitarian assistance to the region as a first response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 16, the State Department announced that it would provide an estimated $79 million in health assistance to various MENA countries to help prepare laboratory systems, implement a public-health emergency plan for points of entry, and activate case-finding and event-based surveillance for influenza-like illnesses. To date, Congress has appropriated almost $1.8 billion in emergency foreign assistance funds through two supplemental appropriations bills to address the impact of COVID-19. See CRS In Focus IF11496, COVID-19 and Foreign Assistance: Issues for Congress, by Nick M. Brown, Marian L. Lawson, and Emily M. 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