8/9/2019

BUDGET/FOREIGN AID/FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump‘s budget office on Friday [8-9-19] ended its pause on several pots of foreign aid amid mounting bipartisan backlash. A senior administration official said the funding halt, which the Office of Management and Budget requested last weekend, was ‘temporary.’ OMB had asked for ‘an accounting’ of billions of dollars in foreign aid that wasn’t obligated for a specific purpose and was set to expire at the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year…Advocates are still concerned that the administration is planning to send Congress a package that would pull back billions of foreign assistance, however. OMB’s action came after House and Senate foreign policy leaders and appropriators sent letters to OMB on Friday, calling on the administration to cancel the directive holding up as much as $4 billion across 10 areas of foreign assistance, including funds for international peacekeeping operations, narcotics control and global health efforts.”

Caitlin Emma, “Trump’s budget office ends foreign aid pause,” Politico, August 9, 2019 9:11 pm