Egypt lobby in the United States
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Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
lobby in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
is a collection of lawyers, public relation firms and professional lobbyists paid directly by the government of Egypt to lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of the interests of the government of Egypt. A key goal of Egypt's lobbyists is to secure a large allocation of foreign aid; more than $50 billion in American aid has gone to Egypt since 1975.Anupama Narayanswamy and Luke Rosiak
Adding it up: The Top Players in Foreign Agent Lobbying
ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
, August 18, 2009.
According to
ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
, this massive amount of American aid has "enabled" the Egyptian government to postpone democratic reform. According to ProPublica, in 2007-8 Egypt ranked sixth in a list of the number of meetings between lobbyists for foreign governments and congressmen. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', in 2010 three of the most notable lobbyists
Tony Podesta Anthony Thomas Podesta (born October 24, 1943) is an American lobbyist best known for founding the Podesta Group. The brother of former White House Chief of staff John Podesta, he was formerly one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists and fundr ...
, Robert L. Livingston and
Toby Moffett Anthony John Moffett, Jr. (born August 18, 1944) is a former American politician from the state of Connecticut. A Democrat, Moffett served in the United States House of Representatives as the member from Connecticut's 6th congressional distri ...
scored a large success on behalf of the government of Egypt by persuading American senators to stop passage of a bill in the United States Senate calling on Egypt to "curtail human rights abuses." Their success is credited with condoning the abuses that brought about the
2011 Egyptian revolution The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January revolution ( ar, ثورة ٢٥ يناير; ), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police ho ...
.Eric Lichtblau
Arab Unrest Puts Their Lobbyists in Uneasy Spot
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', March 1, 2011.
In the lobbying campaign, former congressman from Connecticut Toby Moffat told his former colleagues that the bill "would be viewed as an insult" and that it would be wrong to insult an important ally. "We were just saying to them, 'Don't do this now to our friends in Egypt,' " he said. In the wake of President Mubarak's resignation, lobbyists Podesta, Moffat and Livingston continue to share "a joint, multimillion-dollar (lobbying) contract with Egypt."


References

{{Lobbying in the United States Egypt–United States relations Lobbying in the United States