From the pandemic threat of Ebola to the new rise of ISIS in Syria to countering China’s moves across the developing world, Congress has reaffirmed that the global challenges America faces are just too great to draw down our nation’s civilian footprint around the world.

Leveraging their power of the purse, Senate appropriators once again rejected deep and disproportionate cuts to the International Affairs Budget, providing a slight increase for the Fiscal Year 2020 State-Foreign Operations bill. This is welcome news.

At the same time, we urge lawmakers to not lose sight of the dramatic challenges we face overseas and to continue to strengthen funding levels for diplomacy and development programs as conference negotiations begin between the House and Senate.