“The bipartisan budget deal on track to pass the Senate is due to cut international food aid to millions who need it, thanks to a continued requirement to ship American food abroad rather than purchasing from local producers,” Hayes Brown, a national security reporter and blogger, writes in ThinkProgress.org. “What Congress has done, in effect, is the complete opposite of what the administration proposed: ending the repayment of funds to aid agencies that purchase American goods to send overseas,” he writes, adding, “If Congress really wanted to save money without harming the people around the world who depend on the U.S.’ aid, there were ways to achieve that goal.” Brown cites reports from the Center for Global Development and the Center for American Progress (12/18).