Budget & Appropriations

Encouraging robust U.S. government investment in humanitarian and poverty-focused development assistance programs is one of InterAction’s core priorities.  

Sequestration

Across-the-board cuts to all federal spending – including for foreign assistance programs – took effect in March. The five percent cut will have disastrous effects on these vital programs that save lives around the world (see the infographic [1]):  

• HIV/AIDS treatment for 162,170 people will not be available, potentially leading to 37,000 more AIDS-related deaths and 72,830 more children becoming orphans.
• 63,400 fewer HIV-positive pregnant women will receive services to prevent mother-to-child transmission, leading to nearly 12,100 infants being infected with HIV.
• 1.1 million fewer insecticide-treated mosquito nets will be procured, leading to over 3,000 deaths due to malaria; 1.9 million fewer people will receive treatment.
• 2,749,326 fewer children annually will have access to a quality primary school education.  
• 571,344 fewer children who will receive nutritional interventions designed to save their lives and help prevent the irreversible damage to their brains and bodies caused by malnutrition.
• 2 million fewer people would have access reduced or denied to lifesaving food aid.
• 303,000 fewer people will have access to improved water and sanitation.

Contact your Members of Congress [2] and tell them to stop the cuts and protect these crucial, poverty-focused programs.

Fiscal Year 2014

The President and both chambers of Congress have released budget blueprints for Fiscal Year 2014 and they all take dramatically different positions on the International Affairs Budget (IAB).

• The House budget recommends that the IAB should be $38.7 billion, which is $3 billion (7 percent) lower than even the current FY2013 sequestered levels.
• By contrast, the Senate budget recommends that the IAB be approximately $45.6 billion, which is about $4 billion (9.6 percent) higher than the current, FY2013 sequestered levels, and $6.9 billion (18 percent) higher than House budget.
• The President has recommended a base IAB of $48.2 billion as well as $3.8 billion in funding for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), totaling $52 billion for the IAB overall. (The Congressional budget proposals made no recommendations on OCO funding.)

Click here [3] for an in-depth look at the President's budget and how it compares with the two Congressional budgets.

While none of these totals will become law, they set a tone for how lawmakers will go about writing their spending bills for FY 2014.  Contact your Member of Congress [2] and tell them to support robust funding levels for the International Affairs Budget and the poverty-focused development and humanitarian accounts in FY 2014.

Budget Table [4]

To learn more about all these numbers in depth, see our budget table [4] that displays past and proposed funding levels for key humanitarian and poverty-focused development assistance accounts, as well the current House and Senate proposals, the administration’s budget request, and InterAction’s recommended investment levels.