Clinton asks Kerry for help on budget
If Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) becomes the next secretary of state, he will inherit a department facing deep budget cuts. Unless, that is, he defends the State and USAID budgets now as part of the supercommittee that is looking for $1.2 trillion in savings by Thanksgiving. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to Kerry to ...
If Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) becomes the next secretary of state, he will inherit a department facing deep budget cuts. Unless, that is, he defends the State and USAID budgets now as part of the supercommittee that is looking for $1.2 trillion in savings by Thanksgiving.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to Kerry to ask him for help defending the State and USAID budgets earlier this year, in a letter posted to the website of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
If Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) becomes the next secretary of state, he will inherit a department facing deep budget cuts. Unless, that is, he defends the State and USAID budgets now as part of the supercommittee that is looking for $1.2 trillion in savings by Thanksgiving.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to Kerry to ask him for help defending the State and USAID budgets earlier this year, in a letter posted to the website of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
"I write today to ask for your assistance securing America’s leadership in a changing word," Clinton wrote to Kerry on Oct. 4. "We all know that Congress faces tough choices. However, the Department of State and USAID make up one percent of the entire federal budget; even the most drastic cuts to this essential investment in our national security barely would make a dent in our deficit."
Clinton called the Senate’s allocation of $42 billion for State and USAID in 2012 "reasonable," but warned that deeper cuts in the House’s proposal would force State to shutter some overseas posts and reduce the number of civilians working in conflict areas, as well as result in the U.S. government "turning our backs on the world’s hungry and sick."
The State Department and the development NGO community have been focusing on the idea that the diplomacy and development budgets comprise less than 1 percent of federal spending.
"With just one percent of the budget, State and USAID make an outsized contribution to America’s security, prosperity, and global leadership," Clinton wrote. Similar letters went our to other members of Congress, as well.
The day before the letter was sent, NGO groups launched a companion campaign called "The Power of One Percent," led by the group Population Services International (PSI). State Department official Ronan Farrow headlined the Oct. 4 kickoff event, and advocates lobbied the Hill that day, led by PSI board member Barbara Pierce Bush (daughter of George W. Bush) and PSI ambassador Mandy Moore.
The Cable sat down with Bush and Moore that day to hear about the campaign and their involvement.
"This is a call to action," said Moore, "We want to raise awareness and explain how much is being done with so little. That’s the overriding message of the Power of One Percent."
Moore also used her trip to the Hill to reunite with the staffers who joined her on her trip to Cameroon earlier this year.
Bush goes to East Africa several times a year and said that the investments made in global health have contributed to progress in combating diseases like HIV.
"We’ve already made so much progress that it would be much more costly to stop investing now and then realize in 10 years that we’ve really backslid in progress," she said. "It’s a bipartisan initiative. I don’t think it’s political to make sure people have access to health care and to make sure people around the world can live a healthy life if you can do something about it."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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