Congress moves to restore missile defense aid to Israel cut by administration Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON Ñ Congress has ordered a reversal of cuts in U.S. military aid ordered by President Barack Obama.
In late June, the House and Senate agreed to restore tens of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Israel slashed by the Obama administration for fiscal 2010. One target of the Obama cuts was a new Israeli missile defense program.
"The administration wants to significantly reduce U.S. missile defense programs. and this has clearly hurt joint programs with Israel," a congressional source said.
Israel had sought $150 million in U.S. missile defense funding for 2010. The assistance was meant to help fund the Israeli-U.S. Arrow-3 medium-tier project and the low-tier David's Sling, the latest of Israel's missile defense programs and designed to stop medium- and long-range rockets.
Instead, the House and Senate provided $37.5 million program for Arrow-3, meant to enable the destruction of Iran's Shihab-3 intermediate-range and Syria's Scud D medium-range missiles. Congress also increased the U.S. contribution for David's Sling by up to $25 million.
Obama had requested $45.8 million for David's Sling, which received $72.9 million in 2009. David's Sling has been a project of Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the U.S. firm Raytheon.
The sources said they do not expect the administration to battle the congressional decision to restore U.S. aid to Israel. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, in an amendment to the foreign aid bill, expressed support for "complete accelerated co-production of Arrow missiles."
"It is the sense of Congress that Israel has the inalienable right to defend itself in the face of an imminent nuclear or military threat from Iran, terrorist organizations and the countries that harbor them," Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, said.
Congress also ordered an early transfer of U.S. military aid to Israel as part of the supplemental budget, signed by Obama on June 24. Under the bill, Israel would receive $555 million meant for fiscal 2010.