You want a billion - how about half?

The Washington Office on Latin America has a helpful breakdown as to where we now stand on President Obama's request for assistance to Central America.

Congress is now finalizing its Central America assistance. The latest foreign aid bills from the House and Senate provide modest boosts in economic and development aid, although are substantially less than what the Administration requested. At the same time, they increase funding levels for a range of programs related to drug interdiction and border security. Of the $1 billion requested, the Senate bill would provide $675.3 million, and we estimate the House would provide $449.7 million. Another bill would raise proposed Defense Department funding for military assistance to the region beyond the administration’s request.

Although the Senate bill’s economic and development aid increases fall short of the administration’s request, it provides much stronger conditionality pushing for anti-corruption measures, institutional and legal reforms, budget oversight, and human rights, while directing a much larger share of its proposed funds to development than the House version.

Lawmakers are currently in the final stages of negotiating language and amounts for a final aid package — the vote for the bill designating State Department assistance must take place by December 11, and President Obama is expected to sign a revised version of the defense bill after vetoing the last bill. Altogether, this is how the administration’s request and current congressional bills compare to assistance to Central America in fiscal year 2014, the last year for which we have solid numbers:

In all likelihood, the assistance package is going to be higher than it has been in the past but not as much as the administration and the region desired. That's not great but a larger amount in 2016 should lay the grounds for larger amounts in future years.