Policy Analyst Casey Dunning was quoted in an IPS article on the fight to retain U.S. funding for aid.
From the Article
Foreign aid could be one of the first items on the chopping block as the United States struggles to address trillion- dollar deficits in the coming fiscal years, a fate U.S. international development agency officials are trying hard to avoid.
Top-level officials of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) teamed up with a Hollywood celebrity in Washington on Monday to urge the public and lawmakers not to cut spending on foreign aid, which they say saves lives, strengthens security, and builds economies around the world, ultimately helping the U.S. most of all.
USAID deputy administrator Donald Steinberg and the organisation's chief economist, Steve Radelet, joined with former first lady Barbara Bush and actress/singer Mandy Moore this week to argue for the foreign aid agenda, which faces criticism from both policymakers and voters who often question the effectiveness of aid projects in general.
Officials say that they're fighting not just a budgetary battle, but one of perceptions: most U.S. citizens believe that foreign aid spending is already in excess, when in reality it accounts for only one percent of the U.S. federal budget, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.