The Senate State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee today approved $75 million in assistance to Armenia for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 – an increase of $20 million over the Administration’s request and nearly $8 million more than the House request, reported the Armenian Assembly of America. In addition, the overall funding level for the former Soviet states was increased to $565 million, up from the Administration’s request of $482 million and the House allocation of $477 million. Today’s action also allocated $5 million in Foreign Military Financing and $750,000 for International Military Education and Training to Armenia as requested by the Administration. Armenia’s neighbors, Georgia and Azerbaijan, are slated to receive $70.5 million and $38 million respectively. The spending measure will be considered later this week by full Senate Appropriations Committee. It should be noted that the House bill provides $67.5 million for Armenia and an additional $5 million for Nagorno Karabakh and maintains military assistance parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan with $5.75 million allocated to each country. Once the Senate completes action on their version of the bill, a joint House-Senate Conference Committee will reconcile the differences.
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