Iraq: Reconstruction Assistance

A large-scale assistance program has been undertaken by the United States in Iraq since mid-2003. To date, nearly $42 billion has been appropriated for Iraq reconstruction. On February 5, 2007, the Administration presented an FY2007 Supplemental request for Iraq reconstruction of about $6.6 billion, a regular FY2008 request of $391.8 million, and an Emergency FY2008 request of $3.5 billion. The FY2007 Supplemental (H.R. 2206, P.L. 110-28), signed into law on May 25, 2007, provides a total of $6.3 billion in Iraq reconstruction assistance, $316 million less than the Administration request. Of this amount, about $1.6 billion appropriated to the Economic Support Fund (ESF) account is subject to a presidential certification of Iraqi progress in 18 benchmarks. On June 21, 2007, the House approved H.R. 2764, the FY2008 State/Foreign Operations regular appropriations bill, rejecting requested regular FY2008 funding for Iraq. On July 10, 2007, the Senate Appropriations Committee, reporting its version of H.R. 2764, did not specifically address the Iraq aid request. Contributions pledged by other donors at the October 2003 Madrid donor conference and in subsequent meetings have amounted to roughly $15.2 billion in grants and loans, of which about $3.8 billion had been disbursed.