Senate Spending: A Slight Improvement

Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations resumed a markup of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, setting their priorities for spending on Foreign Affairs for the 2013 fiscal year.  This was an important and revealing moment for the Senate because what they designate money for in the international affairs budget shows where their foreign policy priorities lay.  The Senate showed a much stronger commitment to international development and human rights than the House did, and we applaud them for that.

Fortunately, the Senate bill provides $1.6 billion for Contributions to International Organizations (CIO), which is slightly above the level requested by the President.  However, for contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA), the bill provides $2 billion for UN peacekeeping, which is $100 million less than the President's request.

One glaring issue with the Senate bill is the question of funding for UNESCO.  Due to an almost 20-year-old law, the United States is barred from contributing to UNESCO because of the recent vote that made Palestine its newest member.

This law sends a negative message to the world that the U.S. is willing to disengage from the international community under such circumstances when in fact our presence and seat at the table helps both promote our own foreign policy and shore up support for our allies.  The U.S. needs to keep a seat at the table when it comes to UNESCO, and we can only do that by paying our dues.

The reason why any funding was originally appropriated to UNESCO in the Senate markup was the hope that Congress will pass a waiver to this law that will allow the United States to contribute funds to UNESCO.  The House bill, in contrast, did not allocate any funds for UNESCO.  Unfortunately, at the markup the Senate decided to lower the level of UNESCO funding. We are glad to see the Senate did appropriate some funds for UNESCO however.  We hope that the final version of the State and Foreign Operations bill will include strong funding for CIO, CIPA, and UNESCO.