From the article:
A proposed State Department budget that would cut spending by more than 28 percent -- rolling back international food aid, humanitarian assistance and health funding -- drew immediate opposition from lawmakers who will decide its fate...
Critics of the proposed foreign aid cuts say the U.S. is already paying less than its fair share of development aid. While the U.S. contributes more than any other nation, at $33.6 billion year, that’s 0.18 percent of its gross domestic product and about half the 0.32 percent contributed by high-income countries, according to Jeremy Konyndyk of the Center for Global Development...
Tillerson and his aides are in the process of a “listening tour” with staff of the State Department and USAID as they consider a major restructuring. Pitkin said major structural changes or actions such as closing overseas posts may come in the fiscal 2019 budget proposal.
In the meantime, Tillerson may have to settle for more money than he wants if Congress has its way.
Refusing to spend the money “would be tantamount to declaring war on congressional appropriators, which is not a wise thing for an administration to do,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development. “We’re in uncharted territory where you have cabinet secretaries going out there for debilitating cuts to their own agencies, so it’s hard to know what to expect.”
