Washington, DC – Foreign Policy for America is deeply disappointed by the Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations package passed by Congress yesterday. The spending package is an underwhelming effort to meet the challenges America and the world currently face and will ultimately hinder our efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthen our diplomatic presence overseas, and address the multiple humanitarian crises we are currently facing.
The 1% funding increase from last year to programs at the State Department and USAID, not even enough to keep up with the rate of inflation, is divorced from reality and does not begin to grapple with the geopolitical realities we are currently facing. It is also a significant reduction from this summer’s House-passed FY22 International Affairs Budget.
Despite critical funding to support Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis set off by Russia’s invasion, many other critical humanitarian priorities saw little to no changes from the previous year. Additionally, Congress’s astounding failure to pass a desperately needed supplemental to address the COVID-19 pandemic is a dangerous development and only increases the risk of more variants threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions at home and abroad. Equally troubling, despite an ever-growing threat of climate change, global climate funding falls well short of what was in the President’s Budget Request as well as legislative proposals from both the House and Senate. Last fall the U.S. pledged to increase overall climate finance to $11.4 billion by 2024, this package calls into question the seriousness of this commitment and undermines vital American interests linked to global security, sustainable development, and economic opportunity.
“This spending package does little to prepare the United States to meet the current moment we find ourselves in,” said Foreign Policy for America’s Senior Director for Policy Ben Weingrod. “We know that many in Congress state that they strong supporters of investing in diplomacy and development, but we are deeply disappointed to see such anemic funding considering the historic challenges we face. Foreign Policy for America looks forward to supporting additional supplemental spending bills to address this shortfall.”
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