U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for the congressional approval of an omnibus appropriations bill that covers funding for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
On Dec. 14, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye unveiled his omnibus package, which includes about USD53.5 billion for the international affairs budget, some USD2.5 billion more than what was indicated in the continuing resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week.
>> A New Omnibus and QDDR Released
The omnibus bill provides financing for U.S. programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, development initiatives in the global health, food security and climate change sectors, and humanitarian response.
“Our budget is being used to help stabilize the global economy, combat extreme poverty, demolish transnational criminal networks, stop global health pandemics, and address the threat of climate change. These are not partisan issues; they are national imperatives,” Clinton said in a statement.
