The latest U.S. House of Representatives foreign affairs funding bill is either “disastrous,” “deeply political,” and would undermine development, or a fiscally prudent piece of legislation that cuts “wasteful spending” — depending on who you ask.
What’s clear is that partisan debates will once again be a part of the budget process, which could mean a risk of a government shutdown and a lot of back-and-forth to reach a compromise in a year further complicated by a presidential election.
The Republican-led House of Representatives proposed a foreign affairs budget for 2025 that would cut funding by 11% compared to this year’s levels, and is 19% less than President Joe Biden requested. And the cuts are not equally distributed across priorities: climate change, multilateral organizations — particularly United Nations agencies — and humanitarian aid appear to bear the brunt.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
