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U.S. Aid to Egypt Facts
February 14, 2011
As (un)happy accident would have it, the release of the House’s FY2011 continuing resolution H.R. 1 and the President’s FY2012 budget request comes right on the heels of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s recent resignation. The FY2012 budget request singles out $1.55 billion for Egypt, making it second only to Israel in bilateral aid.
Source: U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants, Greenbook. Data is reported in 2009 constant USD.
Since the mid-1970s U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt has been relatively high, with the vast majority of aid designated for military assistance. Both Congress and the Obama administration have honed in on the vast sums of military aid the U.S. has promised. The Obama administration vowed to “closely scrutinize our assistance program to ensure that we are…maintaining the maximum leverage on the Egyptian military to ensure a genuine democratic transition.” Military assistance has hovered around $1.3 billion over the last seven years as total aid to Egypt has declined.
Source: U.S. Foreign Assistance Dashboard and FY2012 150 Account Summary and Highlights.
As in the FY2011 request and House Republicans’ H.R. 1, the FY2012 budget request designates over 82 percent of aid to Egypt as “Foreign Military Financing” (FMF). The State Department describes FMF to Egypt as:
Ongoing assistance that supports Egypt’s efforts to enhance border security and combat smuggling, especially along the Gaza border. Egypt uses FMF – the backbone of it military procurement budget – both to expand the base of U.S. equipment and to sustain and upgrade existing U.S. equipment.
Aid to Egypt through the Economic Support Fund (ESF) provides resources for health, education, and economic growth, among other sectors. ESF assistance has decreased over the past seven years, with notable declines in democracy and health funds.
Source: U.S. Foreign Assistance Dashboard.
In terms of development dollars, the U.S. comes second to the EU Institutions in 2009.
Source: OECD/DAC Database.
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3 Responses to “U.S. Aid to Egypt Facts”
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February 15th, 2011 at 1:51 pm
The third chart on ESF is rather ironic in showing no funding for “Peace and Security”. This is an artifact of the way those categories are defined and resources are allocated — but how odd.
Arguably the high level of assistance to Egypt is about peace and security but that isn’t demonstrated in their reporting.
February 15th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Peace and Security doesn’t show up in the third chart because it is not included as ESF funding. Peace and Security funds come from the FMF account. Consideration of both show the very strong emphasis on Peace and Security in aid to Egypt.
December 5th, 2011 at 12:08 pm
notice the jump in aid $ Egypt receives upon signing the Sinai 2 disengagement with Israel and again In 1979, with the signing of the Egypt- Israeli peace treaty. it jumps each time. it seems our aid to Egypt is at least partly for Israel’s benefit…