Rand Paul introduces legislation to end foreign aid to Egypt

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) today introduced a bill that would prohibit the United States from sending foreign assistance to the government of Egypt because of  the military coup that took place in the country last week.

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The legislation, the ‘‘Egyptian Military Coup Act of 2013’’, follows the defeated bill, S. 201, which would have prohibited the U.S. government from selling F-16 military aircraft, M1 tanks, and similar military weapons to the Egyptian government. That bill was tabled with a vote of 79-19 in February.

The Jewish group, The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praised Senator Rand Paul’s call for stopping the sale of arms to the Morsi government in Egypt.

“Egypt is the latest example of the Obama Administration’s misguided foreign policy,” Sen. Paul said. “The overthrow of the Egyptian government was a coup d’état, and the law is clear that when a coup takes place, foreign aid must stop. But, the President still plans to continue to send aid to Egypt, at a pace of more than $1.3 billion per year. By the President’s refusal to call the situation in Egypt a ‘coup’ and continuing the flow of foreign assistance to Egypt, he is forthrightly saying ‘I am ignoring the rule of law.'”

The United States still plans to go through with the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the coming weeks, U.S. defense officials told Reuters on Wednesday, even after the Egyptian military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.