When U.S. lawmakers agreed to a $50 billion foreign affairs spending bill last month, they also agreed not to endorse a campaign to defund one of the core pillars of the U.S. government’s international democracy assistance efforts.
In both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the National Endowment for Democracy faced back-to-back attempts by conservative lawmakers to pass amendments that would strip away its funding — both of which were defeated.
NED is a nongovernmental NGO created under former President Ronald Reagan more than forty years ago, which receives most of its funding from the U.S. government and doles out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants each year to civil society groups in an effort to advance democracy worldwide.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
