InterAction, Global Leadership Campaign Host Briefing on FY 2006 International Affairs Budget

 

On February 17, InterAction and the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign hosted their annual briefing on the International Affairs Budget.  The briefing featured presentations by Larry Nowels of the Congressional Research Service, Nisha Desai from InterAction, and Jason Gross of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign.

 

Larry Nowels began the briefing with an overview of the overall international affairs budget request.  According to Nowels, the international affairs budget increased by 13% over FY 2005 enacted levels.  However, he acknowledged that despite the overall increase, there are still decreases in funding to important programs such as child survival and development assistance while funding for the disaster assistance program was largely straight-lined.  Nowels also briefly discussed the FY 2005 Supplemental, noting that some members have raised concerns that some of the requests are not emergencies and there may be attempts to shift this funding into the regular FY 2006 budget, increasing the pressure on the regular budget.

 

Nisha Desai discussed the impact of the budget on the core humanitarian and development assistance accounts, remarking on the decreases in funding for child survival, development assistance, and bilateral contributions to international organizations such as UNDP.  According to Desai, the budget request shifts resources from one account to another without a comprehensive strategy in place on how to meet new challenges and needs.  Desai also noted that not counting the $300 million transfer from critical international food assistance programs, the funding for the International Disaster and Famine Assistance was flat-lined at the FY 2005 enacted level. Both Desai and Nowels noted that the funding request for the Millennium Challenge Account was well short of what the President had initially promised.

 

Finally, Jason Gross concluded the briefing by focusing on the overall importance of the international affairs budget to U.S. national security. He noted that the administration includes international development and diplomacy as critical to U.S. national security.  Gross further noted that two of the three pillars or "3-Ds" of the National Security Strategy of the United States, diplomacy and development, were contained in the 150 account which comprised only 1.5% of the overall federal budget while defense, the third component, comprised over 17% of the total budget.  Gross also observed that while there were increases in the 150 account over the past three years, that the overall 150 account spending was still below the high water mark of the mid-1980s and that international affairs spending as a percent of our GDP had actually fallen in the past two decades.

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