President Obama announces budget plan

President Barack Obama unveiled his budget on Wednesday, making broad commitments to invest in U.S. efforts to tackle global health and food security.

 

NGO leadership responded to the president's proposals shortly after, saying that it paves the way for Congress to discuss a robust and cost-effective approach to U.S. foreign assistance.

 

“Even in a time of belt-tightening, the U.S. must maintain its moral leadership in helping the world’s most poor and vulnerable,” said Samuel Worthington, President and CEO of InterAction, the U.S. NGO alliance.

 

The budget requests $1.65 billion to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as bilateral funding for Feed the Future programs.

 

While InterAction and other NGOs are still analyzing the budget plan, Worthington said Wednesday that at first glance it reflects an overall sustained commitment by the U.S. to poverty-focused development assistance. He expressed concerns, however, that the proposed base funding for humanitarian assistance may not be adequate to meet global needs, especially as the world faces ongoing crises in places like Syria and Mali .

 

In the budget plan, Obama also recommends reform to the international food aid program currently known as Food for Peace. In 2012, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent $1.6 billion under this program to purchase and ship U.S.-produced food to vulnerable communities around the world. President Obama’s proposal would effectively dismantle this initiative, redirecting funds to the International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account and Development Assistance (DA) account.

 

InterAction and other leading NGOs, in anticipation of the president's budget, endorsed a set of principles to guide food assistance reform. As Congress considers Obama's proposal, these groups are urging lawmakers to keep the focus of the programs on those suffering from acute and chronic hunger.

 

Delays to the release of the President’s budget in February and March allowed both the Senate and House of Representatives to pass their own recommendations, with differing proposals now on the table. The Senate version requests a baseline level of $45.6 billion for the international affairs budget in fiscal year 2014, while the House recommendation stands 18 percent lower, at $38.7 billion.

 

Congress will now attempt to navigate a budgetary course between these recommendations by the end of fiscal year 2013 on September 30.

 

On Tuesday, InterAction released a letter, endorsed by 142 organizations, calling on Congress to support a strong international affairs budget in fiscal year 2014. They emphasized that spending on poverty-focused development and humanitarian assistance is less than 1% of the federal budget.