(Cross-posted from colombiapeace.org.)

The Senate Appropriations Committee released a draft of its version of the 2021 aid bill yesterday morning. And two weeks ago, a Congressional Research Service report revealed new data about Defense Department assistance.

The 2021 aid bill hasn’t become law yet, and might not until the next presidential administration. This table depicts the White House’s February request and the House and Senate versions of the bill. The two chambers’ amounts don’t differ widely.

Both the House and Senate packages would dedicate less than half of 2021 aid to Colombia’s military and police. This is a big contrast from the peak years of Plan Colombia between 2000 and 2015, when military and police aid in some years exceeded 80 percent of the total.

Sources for most of these numbers:

• 2016: the 2018 State Department Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations
• 2017: page 1607 of the explanatory statement for the 2017 Omnibus Appropriation, and the 2019 CBJ for Foreign Operations
• 2018: page 1803 of the explanatory statement for the 2018 Omnibus Appropriation, and the 2020 CBJ for Foreign Operations
• 2019: page H908 of the explanatory statement for the 2019 Omnibus Appropriation, and the 2021 CBJ for Foreign Operations
• 2020: Page 53 of Division G of the explanatory statement for the 2020 Omnibus Appropriation
• 2021: The 2021 aid request to Congress from the White House
• 2021 House: The House Appropriations Committee’s July 9, 2020 narrative report
• 2022 Senate: The Senate Appropriations Committee’s November 10, 2020 narrative report
• Defense Department aid 2016-19: Congressional Research Service 2020.
• 2020 transfer of aid from Central America: we’ve heard it from legislative staff, but the only document we can cite right now is coverage of an October 2019 announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Colombia’s El Tiempo.

Not reflected here is assistance to Colombia to manage flows of Venezuelan refugees.