Armenian American foreign aid priorities will be among the broad range of issues considered Thursday by members of the influential U.S. House subcommittee tasked with drafting the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 foreign assistance bill, setting the stage for full House and Senate consideration in upcoming months, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

No date has yet been set for Senate consideration of its version of the FY 2017 foreign aid bill, though with both houses of Congress going out of session in mid-July, initial consideration is likely to take place during the coming weeks.

Among the Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) foreign aid priorities being advanced by the ANCA is an appropriation of at least $5 million in aid to Nagorno-Karabakh for humanitarian and developmental programs, including the expansion and modernization of the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center.

In addition, the ANCA is encouraging House and Senate appropriators to support a broad range of other foreign aid priorities of special concern to Armenian Americans and other friends of Armenia, including:

- Zeroing-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until its leaders agree with the Royce-Engel peace proposals to withdraw snipers and heavy arms, add OSCE observers, and deploy gunfire locator systems.

- Allocating at least $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia, targeted to growing the U.S.-Armenia trade and investment relationship.

- Appropriating at least $10 million in emergency aid to help Armenia settle the nearly 20,000 thousand people who have fled to Armenia from Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.