Budget Calls for Deep Cuts to Foreign Aid, Especially for Refugees and in Humanitarian Crises by Carol Morello – Washington Post
The Trump administration is proposing slashing the budget for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by almost 24 percent, with particularly steep cuts to humanitarian aid, refugee assistance and global health programs.
The proposed 2020 budget would take three funds that collectively are funded by more than $9 billion and consolidate them into an International Humanitarian Assistance fund that would be allotted about $6 billion, a one-third drop. In addition, the administration proposes cutting global health programs from $8.7 billion this year to $6.3 billion next year, a cut of almost 28 percent.
The White House budget request reflects the priorities of the administration, which has not been successful at getting its proposals past a Congress in which foreign spending enjoys wide bipartisan support. The administration submitted even deeper drops in foreign spending during each of the previous two years, and Congress largely restored them.
This year, more than a dozen retired military officers who commanded in combat zones urged Congress to do the same, calling the cuts a threat to national security.
“Congress will forget this budget by Friday, but the signal it sends to the world’s poorest will be remembered,” said Tom Hart, director of the One Campaign, which promotes health campaigns around the world.
State Department officials defended the budget, saying the United States remains the world’s largest contributor to global health and humanitarian efforts…