For those of us who don't follow politics every day (I was one of those people for a long time), it may seem from the headlines that Obama's budget has passed and that we are done worrying about the budget this year. Unfortunately, we are far from that point.
What passed in early April, was the top line numbers for the budget, the upper limits for accounts that include a wide range of programs. On this blog we were concerned mostly about the International Affairs Budget, which includes funding for a lot of development programs. We were successful in lobbying for an increase of the International Affairs Budget--It was increased by over $4 Billion!
Now Obama has submitted his specific requests for each program and it is time to lobby again. As you can see from the chart above, there are some very important programs that are underfunded in this budget.
According to analysis by ONE, Obama's budget request for specific aid-related programs is very good in general, but there are some holes. Check out this chart and you will see that programs to fight malaria and other tropical diseases are very well funded, along with agricultural development, while funding to fight AIDS and TB is insufficient. While we need to encourage our members of Congress to approve the budget, we need to lobby them to make sure funding for AIDS and TB is increased.
We also need to realize that the foreign aid system in this country is broken, doling out billions without an overarching strategy. For this reason, I encourage you to write your Representatives (if you are a U.S. citizen), asking them to cosponsor the Foreign Assistance Reform Act.
So...Get engaged with the budget process and make your feelings known about foreign aid reform!
-Stephen Donahoe
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