On May 9, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs approved, by voice vote, the FY2013 spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered) to fund the Department of State, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and related agencies. The legislation would provide a total of $40.1 billion in funding for FY2013, $2 billion below FY2012 and $11.5 billion less than President Obama’s FY2013 budget request.
The legislation would fund several programs important to women and families within the Department of State. The bill includes $8.984 billion in funding for diplomatic and consular affairs, which includes funding for overseas contingency operations (OCO), $1.934 billion below FY2012 and $2.396 billion below the president’s FY2013 request. The bill would provide $1.828 billion for international peacekeeping, an amount equal to FY2012 and $271 million below the president’s FY2013 request. The legislation also includes $38 million in overall funding to combat trafficking in persons, but does not specify an amount for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which received $18.7 million in FY2012 and in the president’s budget request. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) would receive $1.2 billion, $328 million less than FY2012 and $332 million below the president’s request.
The bill would provide $17.2 billion for bilateral economic assistance, a decrease of $1.1 billion below last year and $3 billion below the president’s request. Bilateral economic assistance provides funding for several global health programs and migration and refugee assistance. Migration and refugee assistance would receive $1.454 billion, $421 million less than FY2012 and $171 million below the president’s request. In order to improve global health and child survival, the Department of State and USAID would receive a total of $8.018 billion, $150 million below the FY2012 level and $164 million above the president’s request. Within that total, the Department of State would receive $5.543 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the same as FY2012 and $193 million above the president’s request. International organizations, including the U.N. Children’s Fund, would receive a total of $1.31 billion, $30 million below FY2012 and $260 million below the president’s request.
According to the subcommittee press release, the legislation would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits U.S. assistance to nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions. Additionally, the bill would prohibit funding for the U.N. Population Fund. Family planning and reproductive health programs would be capped at FY2008 levels. The legislation also would maintain the Tiahrt Amendment, named after former Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), which provided standards for voluntary family planning services; the Helms Amendment, named after former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), which bans foreign aid from being spent on abortion services; and the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, named after former Rep. Jack Kemp (R-NY) and Sen. Robert Kasten (R-WI), which prohibits funds to organizations the president determines to support coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
Detailed funding levels will be made available when the committee issues its report.
