The President’s FY15 International Affairs Budget Request
March 4, 2014: The Administration released its $1.014 trillion FY15 budget request less than three months after the passage of a budget agreement for both FY14 and FY15. Given the spending caps in the last budget agreement, this budget’s request for International Affairs programs makes a strong statement in support of America’s global engagement. This is particularly important given the disproportionate cuts these programs have received in recent years.
The $50 billion International Affairs budget request includes $44.1 billion for base programs and $5.9 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), and is nearly identical to last year’s enacted amount. Compared with current funding, this is flat (-0.2%) for base programs, and when combined with OCO is just 1% below current funding. In addition to protecting the base programs from cuts, the request also expands the OCO funding so it can be used beyond the Frontline States to address other global hotspots.
Notable Increases in the Budget
1. International Peacekeeping: 36.5%
Crises in Syria to CAR to Sudan require additional resources, and a new forward-thinking fund for unanticipated needs will help us respond more quickly in the future.
2. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC): 11.6%
MCC’s innovative approach to providing assistance received a plus up to support its new mechanism connecting payments to performance and results.
3. State Department/USAID Operations: 10.2%/21.4%
After being decimated in the mid 1990s, State Department staff are slowly rebuilding our critical civilian capacity.
Notable Decreases in the Budget
1. Global Health: 4.6%
Global health has been one of the fastest-growing accounts for more than a decade, and contributions to the Global Fund are down as other countries have reduced their contributions, and ours is proportionally reduced.
2. Humanitarian Assistance: 25%
Disaster aid, refugee programs, and food aid (PL480) are down at a time when natural disasters and conflicts are on the rise. This reduction, however, comes after significant increases to the account over the past two years.
Find the full list of increases and decreases in the Detailed Analysis below.