Foreign Assistance Budget

Issues - Foreign Assistance Budget - Hero

Issues - Foreign Assistance Budget Intro

What can we do with roughly one percent of the federal budget? This one percent helps combat deadly diseases, provides access to basic education to millions of girls around the world, helps ensure nursing mothers have access to clean drinking water, and provides small-scale farmers with the knowledge they need to grow healthy, sustainable crops.

Issues - Foreign Assistance Budget - HandUp

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Uganda is facing the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis with an unprecedented influx of refugees from South Sudan.

Foreign assistance is a hand-up, not a handout.

CARE knows this investment is worth the penny, and any cuts to these programs will put lives at risk. The world currently faces the biggest refugee crisis in modern history with more than 65 million people displaced from their homes and countries. Foreign assistance embodies the generosity and human dignity that Americans believe in.

However, the Trump administration continues to propose drastic and disproportionate cuts to foreign assistance at a time when these investments are needed more than ever.

CARE Action calls on Congress to support a robust international affairs budget and oppose any disproportionate cuts to critical, lifesaving foreign assistance programs.

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Issues - Foreign Assistance Budget - StateofPlay

State of Play

In 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration proposed an International Affairs Budget for the forthcoming fiscal years that would have slashed foreign aid, resulting in life and death consequences and undercutting America’s — and the world’s — ability to address global threats. Thanks to CARE advocates, Congress protected this lifesaving funding in the final spending bills, holding the line at $55.9 billion in funding for foreign assistance programs that combat poverty and save lives around the globe.

Then, on March 11, 2019, the Trump administration announced 24 percent cuts to the International Affairs Budget in Fiscal Year 2020, despite daunting global challenges, from conflict to mass displacement, from food insecurity to global health crises. Additionally, the White House threatened to cut all foreign aid to the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in April of 2019.

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