policy
Groundhog Budgeting?
Despite Growing Dangers Facing America,
Budget Request Once Again Calls for
Draconian Cuts to International Affairs
Liz Schrayer is President and CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition
A WEAKENED NATIONAL
SECURITY FRAMEWORK
The budget request again rejects the
decades-long bipartisan consensus
that funding for defense and inter-
national affairs proportionally ebbs
and flows together as a percentage
of GDP. For the first time since the
State Department and USAID began
relying on a critical wartime account
alongside the Defense Department
eight years ago – an account known
as Overseas Contingency Opera-
tions (OCO) – the Administration’s
budget includes no OCO resources
for non-defense programs while at
the same time proposing to increase
OCO funding for defense.
46 iF Magazine | March 2018
THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT
Building on the economic competi-
tiveness theme in the National Se-
curity Strategy, the budget proposes
doubling down on a new standalone
U.S. Development Finance Institu-
tion (DFI). With bipartisan Congres-
sional interest in modernizing Amer-
ica’s development finance capabilities,
this proposal is expected to garner
significant support and attention on
Capitol Hill. See our press statement
from the USGLC welcoming this
proposal.
smaller-scale “Impact Initiative” to
implement keystone modernization
projects focused on processes, pro-
cedures and technologies. Under the
leadership of Administrator Mark
Green, USAID has undertaken its
own redesign effort, which will focus
on implementing process and pol-
icy reforms to ensure USAID pro-
grams promote developing countries’
“journey to self-reliance.”
PERSONNEL CUTS
The new budget request also propos-
es cuts to several accounts that fund
the U.S. diplomatic and development
TILLERSON’S REDESIGN
presence around the world and ap-
EFFORT NARROWS
pears to implement the Administra-
As reported recently in the media, tion’s goal of reducing State Depart-
the budget proposal confirms that ment and USAID personnel by 8%.
the Secretary’s signature Redesign Members of Congress have already
agenda has been replaced with a expressed concerns about the pro-