Smith-Dodd amendment passes to restore international affairs funding in senate budget

On March 23rd the Senate unanimously approved the Smith-Dodd Amendment to the FY08 Senate Budget Resolution. The amendment restores a previous $2.2 billion cut to the international affairs budget. In an email sent to Senate foreign policy staffers, Don Kraus, Executive Vice-President and Government Relations Director at Citizens for Global Solutions, said, “The result of the 2006 election was a clear message from the American public that they want the U.S. to engage the world in a cooperative and multilateral fashion. Supporting the Smith-Dodd amendment will help us realize this goal.” The Smith-Dodd amendment enjoyed the bi-partisan support of thirty-two Senators. Each of these Senators publicly confirmed their support before it was brought to a vote.

Currently the House FY08 Budget includes $35.3 billion for the International Affairs account, a $1.2 billion dollar cut. As of yet there has been no initiative to restore this funding in the House. Congressional staff will meet during the Easter recess to try and reconcile the differences between the House and Senate FY08 Budget Resolutions.

The Bush administration’s FY08 Budget Request is $3.5 billion higher than the FY07 Continuing Resolution passed by Congress. This includes $208.4 million more for the Contributions to International Organizations (CIO) account, $1.25 billion more for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) account, $903 million more for the Global HIV/AIDS Initiative (GHIA) account, and $225 million more for the International Financial Institutions account. However, the administration lowered its request for the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund (CSH) by $153 million and for the Migration and Refugee Assistance Fund by $59.5 million.

Additionally, the Administration lowered its request for both the Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) account and the Contributions for International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) account. This was a serious issue at a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on International Organizations and Peacekeeping funding. Multiple members of the Subcommittee were concerned about which peacekeeping missions the Administration was expecting to cut and about whether this would harm the progress of the missions. The hearing ended with Representative Nita Lowey asking the Bush administration’s representative to offer an amendment to the Budget Request restoring full funding to the peacekeeping accounts.