President Trump on Thursday abandoned a push for cuts in foreign aid, faced with opposition from lawmakers in both parties.
“It’s clear that there are many on the Hill who aren’t willing to join in curbing wasteful spending,” a senior administration official told The Washington Times. “The president has been clear that there is waste and abuse in our foreign assistance and we need to be wise about where U.S money is going. Which is why he asked his administration to look into options to doing just that.”
The White House was seeking up to $4.3 billion in so-called “rescissions” from the State Department budget and the U.S. Agency for International Development. It’s the second year in a row that the White House sought unsuccessfully to trim foreign aid that was already appropriated by Congress, before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Among the programs the White House wanted to cut were funding for a so-called “Green New Deal for Africa” and solar panels for Central Asia.
Top Democrats opposing the cuts were joined by Republican appropriators Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky in urging Mr. Trump to stop the move.
Liz Schrayer, president and CEO of U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, credited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with blocking the proposed cuts.
“A huge shout-out to Secretary Pompeo who — for the second summer in a row — brought his swagger and fought for his department alongside strong bipartisan leadership in Congress and a powerful chorus of voices from the military, faith, business, and humanitarian communities who stepped up to protect the State Department and USAID,” she said in a statement.
She said the foreign aid is badly needed for a variety of priorities.
“With all the threats and competition that America faces overseas — from Ebola to a renewed ISIS to China — it’s clear once again from the Freedom Caucus to the Progressive Caucus that politicizing these kinds of cuts to critical national security programs is simply not a winning agenda,” she said.
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