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 May of 2017, the Trump administration proposed an International Affairs Budget for fiscal year 2018 that would slash foreign aid by nearly one-third. Such deep and disproportionate cuts would have had life and death consequences, and would undercut America’s — and the world’s — ability to address tomorrow’s global threats. Thanks to CARE advocates, Congress protected this lifesaving funding in the final FY18 spending bill, providing $55.9 billion in funding for foreign assistance programs that combat poverty and save lives around the globe.

Then, on February 12, 2018, the Trump administration announced its proposed skinny budget for fiscal year 2019, including dangerous cuts to foreign assistance programs. CARE is calling on Congress to sustain and protect the International Affairs Budget in FY19 at a minimum of current FY17 levels, or $59.1 billion.

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