With friends like these…
From the Washington Post, with thanks to Sugar Quub:
The House yesterday rejected a $570 million cut in U.S. military aid to Egypt after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell issued a last-minute warning to lawmakers that the action would damage relations with a close Middle East ally “at a very sensitive moment in the region.”
Although the 287 to 131 vote was lopsided, the administration and military contractors who sell U.S.-financed weaponry to Egypt took seriously the threat of a cut and worked behind the scenes to head it off.
Before the vote, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice made calls to some lawmakers, who were also on notice from arms companies that the shift could result in job losses in home districts. “It was a full-court press,” said Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who offered the amendment to the $19.4 billion foreign aid bill for 2005.