In past years, the State Department and foreign operations appropriation bill has passed with strong bipartisan support, often by an overwhelming margin. Members of both parties have understood how important diplomacy and development are—not only to U.S. standing in the world, but to our country’s own economic growth, to American jobs, and to American national security.”

– Representative Howard Berman (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a February 17 late night appeal for members of Congress to reject amendments that sought to cut funding in the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs section of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011.

It has indeed been an eventful week, as the House winds down its work in debating amendments to the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011. Throughout the week, InterAction staff have worked strenuously to pour through the 583 amendments and tease out the ones that impacted funding to the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs section of the bill. Debate still continues on, particularly as there are some “reach-back” amendments seeking to alter the overall funding levels of the bill, including a few for across-the-board cuts, that are still on the docket. You can follow the coverage of the continuing House debate live.

Please enjoy the rest of our weekly update, which includes a breakdown of how poverty-focused development assistance and humanitarian accounts fared in President Obama’s FY2012 budget request, a summary of USAID Administrator Raj Shah’s remarks at the House Hunger Caucus about the Feed the Future Initiative, two interesting hearing summaries on U.S. policy towards Latin America and articles of interest.