H.R. 1 – Cuts Like a Knife

In the early morning hours of Saturday, February 19^th, the House passed legislation (H.R. 1) to fund the federal government for the remainder of FY2011.  The bill itself includes many cuts to U.S. foreign assistance programs including:*

• $121 million from USAID’s Operating Expenses (9%)
• $746 million from Development Assistance (30%)
• $630 million from the Economic Support Fund (10%)
• $315 million from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (29%)
• $784 million from Global Health and Child Survival (10%)
• $892 million from International Financial Institutions (44%)

But the story doesn’t end there.  Representatives from both parties offered over 580 amendments (!) to H.R. 1.  Only a fraction of these amendments were accepted or passed, but they included an additional $620 million in spending cuts.  Of the 67 amendments passed, nine amendments have an international assistance component.  They include:

• $42.6 million from the United States Institute of Peace
• $10.7 million from the East-West Center
• $20 million from tropical forest debt reduction
• A prohibition on U.S. military assistance to Chad due to its continued use of child conscription, consistent with the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2007
• A prohibition on the use of funds for the Overseas Comparability Pay Adjustment, an increase in pay for overseas Foreign Service Officers.
• A ban on foreign aid to Saudi Arabia
• A prohibition on funds for UN construction within the U.S.
• A prohibition on the use of funds for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• A prohibition on the use of federal funds to pay the salaries of special presidential advisers who are not required to go through the Senate confirmation process

H.R. 1 heads to the Senate now for a whole new round of deliberations.  At this point it’s anyone’s guess what the final FY2011 budget will look like, but H.R. 1 offers a (somewhat discouraging) glimpse of how foreign assistance may fare in the future.*As compared to FY2010 Actual