House conservatives call for stripping aid to Libya, Egypt from spending bill

Verne Strickland Blogmaster / September 12, 2012   An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in  flames inside U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi. A mob protesting a film they say offends Islam, attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. (STR / AFP / Getty Images / September 11, 2012) (Verne: I found "news" photo of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens being abused in the streets, but could not in good conscience use it on my blog USA DOT COM.)

By Russell Berman -

THE HILL 09/12/12 02:20 PM ET

A group of House conservatives is calling for foreign aid to Libya and Egypt to be stripped from a six-month federal funding bill set for a vote on Thursday.

A handful of lawmakers voiced outrage Wednesday at the Obama administration’s response to the attacks on the U.S. embassies in those countries, and suggested the inclusion of foreign aid could influence their votes.

“It makes it easier to vote ‘no’ ” on the spending bill, freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) said at a press event with conservative House Republicans at the Capitol.


The House on Thursday plans to vote on a continuing resolution that would extend federal funding through March, preventing a government shutdown before the election or during a lame-duck session of Congress this fall.

While conservatives pushed to avoid a shutdown fight, they have also raised alarms about the inclusion of additional welfare funding in the bill.

“It would show a tremendous amount of leadership from this administration, in light of the recent developments, if the president were to come back and demand that the amount of money that is in the [continuing resolution] for Libya and Egypt be stripped. That would be tremendous leadership,” Landry said.