WASHINGTON -- Before anti-government protests swept across Egypt, the Obama administration cut funding for democracy and human-rights groups there, potentially burning bridges with leaders who could be called upon to help form a new government in Cairo, Mideast experts said. "It left a bad taste in the democracy and human-rights community in Egypt. They really felt like Obama came to power and immediately he sought to engage the Egyptian regime," said Jennifer Windsor, a dean at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
"The Egyptian groups were just stunned," she continued, adding that robust support of democracy movements had been one of the "bright spots" of the Bush administration's controversial Middle East policy.
The nongovernmental groups use the US aid to monitor elections, the courts and human rights. By backing the groups, as it does in other countries, the United States tries to support the people in a way that sidesteps Egypt's autocratic regime.
The administration also decided to let the regime of President Hosni Mubarak decide which groups got funded, by requiring everyone that gets aid be on a government list.
"It sent a signal of a lack of support to the community of activists and reformers in Egypt," said Stephen McInerney of the DC-based Project for Mideast Democracy.
Funding for "democracy, human rights and governance" tanked under Obama -- from $55 million in 2008 to only $20 million in 2009, according to the State Department.
Congress played an important role in the cuts, implementing them in a massive "omnibus" appropriation bill in 2009 and ditching a unique provision that had specifically prevented the Egyptian government from dictating which outside groups got US aid.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, asked about the cuts, said the notion that the aspirations of those seeking greater freedom "is only supported by a level of funding in your budget" doesn't "necessarily match up," especially at a time of cost-cutting.
Sarah Trister of Freedom House, which has participated in distribution of aid through the program, said the policy change "essentially gave a repressive regime that doesn't allow political disagreement or the airing of different opinions control over programs that are meant to foster an environment of free expression and political participation."
