Budget day: State Department reducing role in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2014

The State Department will have a greatly reduced role in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal 2014, according to new budget details released by the White House Wednesday.

President Barack Obama is requesting $47.8 billion for the State Department and international programs in fiscal 2014, which represents a 6 percent decrease from the $51.1 billion State will receive in fiscal 2013, due to a drastic reduction in money requested for the Iraq and Afghanistan accounts, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) part of the budget.

If Congress goes along with the president’s proposal, the State Department would receive $3.8 billion OCO funds in fiscal 2013, a 67 percent reduction from the $11.2 billion State received for the same accounts in fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2013.

The State Department’s piece of the president’s budget includes a request of $2.1 billion for Iraq, which houses the largest U.S. embassy in the world, $3.4 billion for Afghanistan, and $1.4 billion for Pakistan, but the majority of those funds are now requested in the regular part of the budget, not the OCO section.

"The Budget prioritizes core diplomatic and development activities to ensure strong, lasting partnerships with these countries and to promote stability," the White House fact sheet on the State Department’s budget stated.

"The Budget continues to support U.S. security, diplomatic, and development goals in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq while scaling down funding for operations and assistance, consistent with U.S. policy… OCO funding provides for near-term development assistance related to stabilization and counterinsurgency programs, extraordinary costs of operating in a high-threat environment, protection of civilian personnel, and oversight activities of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan."

For countries affected by the Arab uprisings that began in 2011, the fact sheet says that the State Department request includes $580 million "to assist countries in transition and create incentives for long-term economic, political, and trade reforms, building on substantial investments since the Arab Spring."

Last year, the State Department’s Middle East Transition Fund was the featured item in the State Department’s budget request. That $770 million request was never funded by Congress.

The new budget request also requests more than $4 billion to secure overseas diplomatic personnel and facilities, including $2.2 billion in embassy security construction, $1.65 billion for maintaining the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, $2.9 billion to go to the Treasury Department to fulfill U.S. obligations to the multilateral development banks, $909 million in "strategic investments" in climate change related programs, and includes an initiative to transfer U.S. food assistance away from U.S. farmers and toward local food procurement.

The president’s request for the Global Fund was greeted favorably Wednesday morning by aid advocates, including Bono, the lead singer of U2 and co-founder of ONE. 

"President Obama’s budget puts the world on a winning path to finally beat AIDS, TB and malaria. These killer diseases aren’t quite on the ropes but they are teetering; now, thanks to this budget, we’re closer than ever to delivering the knockout punch," Bono said. 

Details of the State Department’s budget are embargoed until 1:30 p.m., so watch this space for more budget news throughout the day.