In the News

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) made the following statements today in response to the release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on U.S. security assistance to Egypt entitled, “U.S. Government Should Strengthen End-Use Monitoring and Human Rights Vetting for Egypt.”

Requested by Ros-Lehtinen and Connolly the report examines the extent of funds disbursed for Egypt security aid in recent years, the extent to which the U.S. government is conducting end-use monitoring of security equipment provided to Egypt, and the extent to which the U.S. government is vetting Egyptian recipients of security assistance for human rights concerns. GAO found that, in many cases, the State Department did not complete end-use checks in the required timeframe, approved end-use checks with incomplete information, and did not conduct outreach programs to improve Egyptian government cooperation with the end-use monitoring program. GAO also found significant discrepancies in State's compliance with human rights vetting requirements for the provision of both training and equipment to Egyptian forces.

Statement by Connolly: “This troubling report details a security assistance program in Egypt that is not in full compliance with established U.S. government policy. It is apparent from this report that the Egyptian government has routinely hindered efforts by the State Department and the Department of Defense to ensure that U.S. security assistance is being used for its intended purposes and not facilitating the brutal crackdown on human rights we are witnessing in el-Sisi’s Egypt.”

“The U.S. has provided Egypt with more than $6.5 billion in security assistance since 2011. While there are important strategic underpinnings to our security cooperation with Egypt, our Egyptian counterparts must understand that U.S. assistance will not be used to carry out activities that run counter to American values. The stonewalling of U.S. government officials carrying out vetting requirements enshrined in statute is entirely unacceptable and must be raised with Egypt at the highest levels of government.”   

Statement by Ros-Lehtinen: “GAO’s report shows an alarming and unacceptable amount of deficiencies in our end-use monitoring and human rights vetting programs in Egypt. End-use monitoring must be fully utilized in order to ensure U.S.-supplied and U.S.-origin defense articles are used properly. Appropriate vetting of Egyptian forces must be performed to the fullest extent possible to ensure human rights are protected. The administration cannot allow these deficiencies to go unaddressed and must immediately take action to ensure all security equipment is being properly monitored and all recipients of both training and equipment are fully vetted.”

NOTE: The report is the third and final phase in GAO’s examination of U.S. assistance to Egypt done at the request of Ros-Lehtinen and Connolly. The first report, released in July 2014, examined democracy and governance assistance to Egypt. The second report was released in February 2015 and examined the status of economic and security assistance to Egypt.

The report can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-435