President Donald Trump wants to slash the State Department?s budget and international programs, with deep cuts to causes including combating climate change and supporting UN peacekeeping.
The budget outline released Thursday for the year that begins Oct. 1 requests $27.1 billion for international programs, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may have succeeded in reversing some of the proposed cuts, though he backed the president?s initiative to cut State Department spending and to eliminate programs such as those that promote democracy globally.
?That guts soft power and puts our diplomats at risk.?In February, more than 120 retired generals and admirals signed a letter urging Congress to block the State Department and USAID reductions, saying the agencies help save the military from fighting wars.
?If it?s anywhere in the ballpark of what I?ve seen about the State Department, that?s definitely dead on arrival,? Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said when word of the cuts first surfaced in February.
0 comments:
Post a Comment