A key Congressional panel is set to consider a proposal that could impose tougher riders on US civil and military aid to Pakistan and make such assistance conditional to Islamabad showing satisfactory progress in the fight against terrorism. <br/><br/>The tougher language on Pakistan forms part of the 2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations draft bill which will be considered by the House Appropriations Committee later today.<br/><br/>The bill provides 47.4 billion US Dollars in both regular discretionary and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding. This is 10 billion US Dollars below the fiscal year 2017 enacted level, when counting additional funds provided in the Security Assistance Appropriations Act of 2017.<br/><br/>Within this amount, the OCO funding totals 12 billion US Dollars, which supports operations and assistance in areas of conflict such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.<br/><br/>The draft bill circulated among the members of the House Appropriations Committee says that none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act under the headings 'Economic Support Fund', 'International Narcotics<br/>Control and Law Enforcement', and 'Foreign Military Financing Programme' for assistance for the Pakistani government may be made available unless the Secretary of State certifies and reports to the Committees that Islamabad is taking action against terrorist groups.<br/><br/>As per the draft, the Secretary of State is asked to certify that Pakistan is cooperating with the United States in counter-terrorism efforts against the Haqqani Network, the Quetta Shura Taliban, Lashkar e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-<br/>Qaeda, and other domestic and foreign terrorist organisations, including taking effective steps to end support for such groups and prevent them from basing and operating in Pakistan and carrying out cross border attacks into neighbouring<br/>countries.