This morning, Secretary of State Clinton takes the witness table to testify before Congress about the FY 2012 International Affairs Budget request. She will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee fresh off her one-day trip to Geneva to discuss the situation in Libya with allies from around the world. Also today, the USGLC will bring retired Generals and Admirals to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators and Representatives about why International Affairs spending is an essential part of our national security and to encourage them to oppose cuts to the International Affairs Budget. Special thanks to all of the military veterans who will be participating today.

Must Reads

Who’s In the News

USGLC Gets Green (Zeeshan Aleem, POLITICO)

Former Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mark Green has joined the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition as senior director of public policy and field operations. He had been managing director of the Malaria No More Policy Center in Washington.

Secretary Clinton on the FY2012 Budget: Managing Global Health Expectations? (Nandini Oomman, CGD)

Budget season this year is messy and confusing. While the FY2011 budget remains unsettled, some focus is about to shift to President Obama’s FY2012 budget request.  Secretary Clinton kicks off the FY2012 budget hearings tomorrow with back-to-back sessions in front of House authorizers and appropriators.

Smart Power

Global AIDS Watchdogs Worry U.S. Neglecting Its Leadership Role (Michelle Chen, the Huffington Post)

This year, the AIDS crisis will turn 30, a testament not only to the epidemic’s resilience but also to a global movement’s long struggle for visibility and survival. There’s no debating that in those three decades, domestic and global efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS made major strides.

A Marshall Plan for the Middle East? (Glenn Hubbard, the Huffington Post)

The recent and current upheavals in the Middle East mark a good moment for the United States to rethink its economic aid to the region. Over the past twenty years, the Middle East has been the largest recipient of U.S. economic assistance — but to what result?

Aid donors get an F for education (Kevin Watkins, the Guardian)

If you want to see iron resolve in action, take a trip to the Kachange camp for displaced people in North Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This is a war zone. Families in the sprawling camp have lost everything – everything that is except a drive to get their kids an education.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Framing the US Foreign Aid Budget Debate (Inder Sud, Results for Development Institute)

President Obama released his FY2012 budget request proposing $47 billion in core funding for the State Department and USAID, a 1% increase from 2010 enacted funding levels, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget states. Some $32 billion of this is budgeted for foreign aid.

On foreign policy, who speaks for Republicans? (Ben Pershing, the Washington Post)

Even as Washington is preoccupied with the threat of a government shutdown, news from abroad has insistently pushed its way onto the front page in recent weeks, with unrest in the Middle East spreading from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya and across the region.

US sending aid team to Libyan borders to help refugees (Leo Reyes, Digital Journal)

The United States government is sending aid teams to Libyan borders to help increasing number of refugees who need assistance and support State Secretary Hillary Clinton said after a series of meetings with foreign policy chiefs in Switzerland.