The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 30-0 Thursday to cut Islamabad's aid in response to the conviction of Shakeel Afridi, the doctor who sought to collect DNA samples to help verify for the CIA that bin Laden was hiding at a compound in Abbottabad, close to the Pakistani capital.

The cut, seen as a symbolic gesture that reflects growing US frustration with a difficult ally, was pushed by Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who called Pakistan a "schizophrenic ally".