Congress aims to restore Syria stabilization aid
Congress is calling for the State Department to spend $130 million on stabilizing Syria next year, a rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to zero out the fund in its 2020 budget proposal.
Congress is calling for the State Department to spend $130 million on stabilizing Syria next year, in a budget proposal released on Wednesday, a rebuke to the Donald Trump administration’s efforts to zero out the fund in its 2020 budget proposal.
The Senate’s powerful appropriations panel would include $25 million for programs inside the so-called safe zone that the United States is working to establish with Turkey in northeastern Syria.
In the plan, lawmakers insisted Turkey “cooperate with international and local partners on all aspects of delivering assistance and access to all populations within the zone,” providing registration services and opening up key border crossings. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today that an expanded safe zone could welcome 2-3 million refugees.
The United States previously slashed $230 million in stabilization aid to Syria, but says it has raised as much as $300 million for the effort from allies and partners, such as the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The bill — if signed into law — would call on the Trump administration to devise a spending plan for the previously allotted money.
