Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Foreign Aid Bill Supporting Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh Refugees, and Pivot from Russian Dependence

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee favorably reported the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) Appropriations Bill including not less than $65 million in assistance to Armenia. The Committee specifically directs the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide bilateral economic assistance to Armenia to respond to the needs of the more than 120,000 Nagorno- Karabakh refugees forcibly displaced from their ancestral homeland due to Azerbaijan’s military aggression.
“We thank the Senate Appropriations Committee for its strong expression of support for Armenia and aid for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees forcibly displaced by Azerbaijan’s brutal military assault,” said Timothy Jemal, President of Global ARM.”In particular, we applaud the leadership of SFOPs Subcommittee Chair Chris Coons (D- DE) in developing the foreign aid bill.”
In February 2024, Global ARM developed a package of nearly $300 million in appropriations requests to provide security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Armenia to strengthen U.S.-Armenia security ties, assist Nagorno-Karabakh refugees, and increase Armenia’s economic resilience. Global ARM engaged more than 75 Congressional offices and key Congressional committees and held extensive discussions with the State Department, USAID, Department of Defense (DoD), and other Executive Branch agencies in support of these requests. In April 2024, the Congressional Armenian Caucus called for inclusion of a similar package of U.S. assistance to Armenia totaling $250 million in this year’s appropriations cycle.

Notably, the Senate’s FY25 SFOPS Appropriations Bill and directive committee report language:

  • Appropriates funding for assistance to the countries of the South Caucasus to “strengthen civil society, protect human rights, and support independent media.”
  • Requires that economic and security assistance be prioritized and allocated for building military capacity to defend territorial sovereignty and deter aggression, enhancing agricultural development, and improving critical infrastructure, based on the extent to which countries of the South Caucasus ‘demonstrate capacity and political will to pursue regional stability and economic integration, and to counter the malign influence of the Russian Federation and other actors.’

  • Establishes conditions on U.S. assistance so that no funding may be made available for “a government of an Independent State of the former Soviet Union if such government directs any action in violation of the territorial integrity or national sovereignty of any other Independent State of the former Soviet Union, such as those violations included in the Helsinki Final Act.”

“Global ARM will continue working with Congress and the Executive Branch on a bipartisan basis to accelerate and increase funding to Armenia while ensuring Azerbaijan is held accountable for its aggression and malign behavior,” added Jemal.
The Senate FY25 SFOPs Appropriations bill now heads to the Senate floor for consideration, strengthening Armenia’s position when the House and Senate ultimately conference their bills.

About Global ARM: Global ARM is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization formed in 2022 by experienced lobbying and political professionals to implement smarter, stronger, and more effective Pro-Armenia, Pro-Artsakh lobbying in Washington, D.C. Global ARM is non-partisan and not aligned with any political party or government inside or outside of Armenia.