Senate Decision to Cut Base International Affairs Funding Troubling

Washington, DC —The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition released the following statement from Co-Presidents Bill Lane of Caterpillar and Carolyn Miles of Save the Children on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ FY 2015 Markups for State-Foreign Operations funding:

“As foreign policy challenges continue to mount, we are pleased that House and Senate appropriators stayed the course today by protecting total International Affairs funding from further cuts.  While the overall numbers in both chambers are roughly the same, we are very concerned that the Senate Committee actually cuts base funding for the International Affairs Budget and moves resources into accounts set aside for war funding.

“The Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds can mitigate the impact of funding shortfalls in the short term, the long term implications of reducing the baseline are dangerous given cuts totaling 14 percent over the past four years.

“As appropriations negotiations continue later this year, we urge Congress to ensure that international affairs funding is maintained at current levels and those proposed by the House, which spare base programs from further cuts.”

Please visit the USGLC’s up-to-the-minute online Budget Center for detailed analysis on the FY 2015 International Affairs Budget process.

The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (www.usglc.org) is a broad-based influential network of 400 businesses and NGOs; national security and foreign policy experts; and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders in all 50 states who support a smart power approach of elevating development and diplomacy alongside defense in order to build a better, safer world.

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