In an interview with The Cable, Rep. Howard Berman discussed the negative implications of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's markup last week of H.R.2583, a State Department and foreign assistance authorization bill. Rep. Berman argued that the bill was a "waste of time" to begin with, and the over 100 amendments added by GOP Congressmen sent a negative signal to the international community. He criticized his GOP counterparts for throwing ...

On Thursday, Foreign Policy and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) co-hosted a discussion on foreign assistance in the context of the Arab Spring. A keynote address was given by Tamara Cofman Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Following her address was a panel discussion with John Norris, Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative, Center for American Progress; Ehaab Abdou, Co-founder, Nahdet El ...

On Tuesday, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted a panel discussion with the Heinrich Böll Foundation of North America to announce the release of a new publication, The Federal Budget and Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2012: Democracy, Governance, and Human Rights in the Middle East. The discussion featured Stephen McInerney, Executive Director of POMED and author of the report; Daniel Brumberg, Senior Adviser to the Center for Conflict ...

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing on human rights in Syria. The witnesses were Michael Posner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Andrew Tabler, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Radwan Ziadeh, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; Mona Yacoubian, the U.S. Institute for Peace Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention; and ...

On Thursday the U.S. House of Representatives voted on amendments to a 2012 Department of Defense spending bill to limit or end the U.S. involvement in Libya.  Tom Cole's (R-OK) amendment H.AMDT. 542, adopted 225-201 "prohibit the use of funds for the Department of Defense to assist any group or individual not part of a country's armed forces for the purpose of assisting that group or individual in carrying out military ...

Last Friday President Barack Obama officially announced his intention to nominate Wendy Sherman to be the next undersecretary of state for political affairs. Josh Rogin argues in Foreign Policy that Sherman "faces a tough, but perhaps not insurmountable, confirmation fight in the Senate." Some Republicans began campaigning against her nomination before it was even announced, and the State Department is facing opposition on a number of other nominations. In an emailed ...

Josh Rogin argued for Foreign Policy that the rejection of H.R. 2278, sponsored by Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) and designed to cut funding for the Libya campaign, does not reflect support for the administration's involvement in Libya. Rather, up to 70 of the 149 Democrats who voted against the bill are opposed to the Libya intervention, and "they voted 'no' on the Rooney's bill because they thought it was too weak, ...

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to not provide a one year authorization for the use of force in Libya. The bill, H.J. RES 68, sponsored by Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) was defeated 123-295. Later, the House did not pass legislation to cut funding for the Libya efforts. The bill, H.R. 2278, sponsored by Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) was defeated 180-238.

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a nomination hearing for five ambassadors to the Middle East and Central Asia. The first of the hearing’s two panels featured the Honorable Anne W. Patterson, to be Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt. The second panel featured Michael H. Corbin, to be Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Matthew H. Tueller, to be Ambassador to the State of Kuwait, ...

On Wednesday, the White House released a report detailing the U.S. military mission in Libya. The report provides a legal justification for continued U.S. involvement in the NATO led operation. White House Counsel Bob Bauer said, "we're not engaged in sustained fighting. There's been no exchange of fire with hostile forces. We don't have troops on the ground. We don't risk casualties to those troops." Also on Wednesday, a group of ...

The Senate Banking Committee will vote Thursday on "The Libyan Assets for Humanitarian Relief Act." The bill would allow President Barack Obama to seize $8billion of Muammar Gadhafi's assets and release $4billion of that immediately. The second $4billion would be released after a 30 day notification period. The President would be authorized to seize and release an additional $2billion to "avert an imminent humanitarian emergency." The bill was sponsored by Banking Committee ...

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced an amendment to the Military Construction/Veterans Affairs appropriations bill banning government funding for activities in violation of the War Powers Resolution. House Amendment 414 to House Resolution 2055 passed with a vote of 248-163. Sherman failed to append his amendment to the Homeland Security appropriations bill last week. Last month, he met with Libyan Transnational Council leader Mahmoud Jibirl pressing the later over the rebels' purported ...

Correction: The organizers of this event were the Libyan Council of North America (LCNA) and the Libya Outreach Group, not only the Libya Outreach Group, as previously reported. On Thursday, the Libyan Council of North America (LCNA) and the Libya Outreach Group hosted a congressional briefing on the role of women in the Libyan revolution.  Speakers on the panel were Ambassador Ali Aujali of the Libyan Transitional National Council, Asma Ramadan of Libya Outreach Group, Asma Yousef of ...