Week ahead: Lawmakers’ foreign visits add urgency to Afghanistan, Syria dilemmas

The delayed negotiations between the Afghans and the U.S. — as well as the stalled talks involving the Taliban — have raised questions over the post-war future of Afghanistan.

{mosads}The U.S. and NATO are set to hand off control of security to the Afghans at the end of 2014, but some U.S. troops are expected to stay behind in a mostly advisory role.

However, that would be contingent on the U.S. reaching a security agreement with the Afghans — something that failed to occur in Iraq in 2011.

Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also visited Afghanistan last week.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), meanwhile, visited Turkey and Jordan to get an update on the Syrian civil war.

Levin has been one of the most vocal Democrats on Syria, urging the Obama administration to do more, including setting up a no-fly zone. The U.S. and NATO have Patriot missiles deployed in Jordan and Turkey, which both border Syria.

The administration has agreed to provide arms to the Syrian opposition, but has thus far resisted creating a no-fly zone.

The rapidly unfolding events in Egypt are also likely to have the full attention of Congress this week, as $1.5 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt could be at stake, most of it military aid.

U.S. law prevents countries from receiving aid if they are ruled by the military in a coup. Thus far, the Obama administration has not called the removal of Mohammed Morsi a coup, and is reviewing the Egyptian aid.

Some lawmakers are calling for the aid to be cut off.

“Egypt’s military leaders say they have no intent or desire to govern, and I hope they make good on their promise,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said last week. 

“In the meantime, our law is clear: U.S. aid is cut off when a democratically elected government is deposed by military coup or decree.”

McCain said the aid should be suspended on Sunday.

On Capitol Hill, congressional committees are ramping back up this week ahead of the month-long recess at the end of July.

The House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees are holding a joint hearing Wednesday on how the agencies can help service members better transition to civilian life. The trouble that the Pentagon and the VA have had making their health records compatible is likely to be a prime topic.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) on Tuesday, and examining the terrorist threat in North Africa “before and after Benghazi” in a Wednesday hearing.

Both the House and Senate Homeland Security committees are holding hearings on the Boston Marathon bombing this week: the Senate panel is having a “lessons learned” hearing, and the House committee is looking at attacks on U.S. soil, including the Fort Hood shootings.