Boondoggles and boogeymen: Cuts in House foreign aid bill spark debate

The foreign affairs budget bill unveiled by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Republicans last week includes substantial cuts to aid funding, a focus on countering Chinese influence, and interesting directives tied to culture wars, including a ban on U.S. support for “drag queen workshops” globally. The top Democrat on the House appropriations state and foreign operations subcommittee, Rep. Barbara Lee, called the bill “extremely disturbing” and “wholly inadequate.” It “fails to meet the challenges of our time,” she said, adding that it will threaten America’s national security. “​​The bill invites the culture wars into our foreign policy by making diversity, drag queens and the critical race theory boogeyman and boogeywoman, distracting us from the real life or death challenges this world faces,” she said at a subcommittee meeting on Friday. The proposed State and Foreign Operations spending bill includes $52.5 billion for fiscal year 2024, 12% lower than this year and 25% below President Joe Biden’s budget request. The bill makes cuts across almost every area but takes particular aim at funding multilateral institutions, particularly the United Nations, and programs that address climate change. Humanitarian assistance, democracy programs, and global health appear to have fared somewhat better than other areas. However, about $11.1 billion of the foreign affairs funding comes through creative budget tinkering. Republicans plan to clawback funding from an unrelated domestic Environmental Protection Agency program to find that money. A budget expert tells Devex that it is a “rare tactic” that has not often been utilized. But Democrats have said that’s a “nonstarter,” the expert told Devex, which means Republicans might cut $11 billion from elsewhere in the foreign affairs budget to meet the 31% reduction in new spending they committed to earlier this month when they released overall spending plans. The bill “reflects a significant different approach than previous bills” but in principle, it is straightforward: Friends and allies of the U.S. will get support, but adversaries and those “cozying up” to them will not, Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, chair of the House appropriations subcommittee for state and foreign operations, said at a subcommittee meeting last week. The bill also emphasizes efforts to push back against China’s economic and foreign policy, and takes aim at U.N. funding and “a boondoggle of climate change spending,” he said. The bill includes an 83% reduction to the Contributions to International Organizations account, eliminating funding for the U.N. regular budget and some agencies, including the World Health Organization and the U.N. Population Fund. “It should come as no surprise that no funds are included in this bill for the U.N. regular budget. The effectiveness and egregious failures of the United Nations and U.N. bodies do not merit support based on the goals and priorities of this bill,” Diaz-Balart said. These proposed cuts, and several other parts of the bill, mirror requests from the Trump administration. Lee, who said she will not support the bill, also argued that rather than improving U.S. efforts to counter China, the bill, by pushing the U.S. to abandon multilateral forums, will instead be “pushing people into the arms of the [People’s Republic of China].” The top Democrat on the appropriations committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, also said she would vote against it. Expect significant debates about the bill moving forward, including between House Republicans and the Democrat-controlled Senate, which is working on its own budget proposal. The final budget will likely look quite different from this House bill. The Senate bill will also include a cut, which is largely a result of a budget agreement reached between Biden and Republican leaders that limited total government spending. Senate appropriators allocated $58.4 billion to the state and foreign operations subcommittee last week. Once the Senate bill is complete, negotiators will seek a middle ground, though that may prove challenging. It seems unlikely lawmakers will pass the budget by the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year and may approve a temporary extension to buy them more time. This year they have a second deadline set by the budget deal — Jan. 1. If an agreement isn’t reached by then, it will trigger a 1% spending cut across the board. Interesting Policy requirements • A prohibition on financing the Green Climate Fund or a climate loss and damage fund. • Limitations on multilateral development bank funding being used on climate-related projects. • A directive that the administration should tell international financial institutions not to provide any loans or assistance to China. • A requirement that Power Africa, the U.S. initiative aimed at increasing access to energy in Africa, stop spending money on renewable energy until it spends the equivalent of what it spent this year on those projects to support other sources of energy. • Requiring that U.S. nonmilitary support for Ukraine account for no more than 50% of the total it receives. • Greater support for faith-based organizations and stricter provisions against U.S. funding being used to support or promote abortion. • A prohibition on spending any foreign affairs funding in the bill on drag queen workshops, performances, or documentaries. Some spending specifics: USAID • $1.2 billion for operating expenses — down $54 million from FY 2023. • $3 billion for the Development Assistance account — down $1.37 billion from FY 2023. • $3.91 billion for International Disaster Assistance — the same as FY 2023. • $3.62 billion USAID global health programs — down $550 million from FY 2023. Global Health • $6.4 billion to combat HIV/AIDS, including $2 billion for Global Fund — down slightly, but PEPFAR funding is the same as FY 2023. • $461 million for family planning and reproductive health — down $114 million from FY 2023. International Financial Institutions — down about 30% overall): • $206.5 million for the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and $1.097 billion for the International Development Association — down $330 million from FY 2023. Millennium Challenge Corporation, $905 million — down $25 million from FY 2023. U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, $776 million — down $229 million from FY 2023. Peace Corps, $410.5 million — down $20 million from FY2023. Other programs • $2.9 billion for democracy programs. • $1.01 billion for food security and agriculture development. • $970 million for basic education.