On May 11, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) announced the schedule for the completion of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Appropriations bills by September 30th. The plan includes the markup of the State Foreign Operations and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which includes State Department-sponsored exchanges and the Fulbright Program. Chairman Ryan's schedule anticipates the State, Foreign Opertations bill to be marked-up by the Appropriations Subcommittee on July 27 and by the full Committee on August 3, though the Chairman’s schedule is subject to change.
Analysis of Rep. Ryan's budget by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) notes that the figure of $39.569 billion for State, Foreign Operations, while appearing to represent a cut of $8.6 billion (18 per cent) from FY 2011 spending, does not include $7.6 billion for the “OCO account” (Overseas Contingency Operations). When including the OCO account and doing a true “apples to apples” comparison of FY 2011 and 2012, USGLC states, the full allocation for State, Foreign Operations is actually $47.2 billion, a two per cent reduction from overall FY 2011 levels. This is the “good news,” says USGLC:
“[This] House allocation marks a major improvement from the deep and disproportionate 18% cut contained in the FY12 budget resolution passed last month by the House.”
The “concerning news,” however, is that core, non-war related programs in the State, Foreign Operations budget “are certainly being reduced.... While an exact calculation is not possible at this time to determine the one-year impact on core programs, it is likely to translate to a 12 to 16 per cent cut.”
USGLC summarizes:
“The bottom line: The overall allocation is significantly better than compared with the House budget resolution. However, the allocation continues a two-year trend of significant cuts to non-war related programs and operations.”
It is unclear how this allocation, as well as the presence of the OCO account, will affect appropriations for State Department programs, including exchanges and the Fulbright Program.
