Security concerns took a hefty bite out of economic programming and U.S. Agency for International Development operations in favor of security programs in the most recent 2016 appropriations bill coming out of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Funding at the country level isn’t included in this version of the the bill, which was debated in a hearing Wednesday, but the $1 billion in aid slated by President Barack Obama for Central America in the administration’s latest budget request looks unlikely to be met. While the $236 million set aside for security-related programming in the region — the administration’s response to the flood of illegal minors from Central America into the U.S. in 2013 — remains intact, it’s unclear how other programs, like those related to civil society, education and economic development will fare.
“[Republican Rep. Kay] Granger and [Democratic Sen. Patrick] Leahy have been pretty engaged in the last few years on governance and education programming in Central America,” said Kate Eltrich, partner at Sixkiller Consulting, “but I bet in total, [the bill] will be nowhere near what the president requested.”