POLITICO: Memo to Congress: Don’t Cut Foreign Aid
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.)

“The security of the United States and its people is the first priority of government, and imposes numerous responsibilities on Congress and the executive branch. … Smart intelligence operations are essential to our security. So is adroit diplomacy and U.S. assistance — including humanitarian relief, democracy promotion, and economic development — to further our goals. … Development assistance programs support military and diplomatic efforts to address … crises, and help prevent conditions that lead to political instability and radicalization. … President Donald Trump faces a world fraught with challenges to our interests, not to mention the demands on our conscience posed by the suffering of so many innocent people around the globe. He will need every tool at his disposal to protect our interests and advance our values. Unwise budget cuts to effective, desperately needed assistance programs are a penny-wise and pound-foolish error that will shift even more of the burden for stabilizing the world to our overburdened armed services. Such cuts will make it harder to make America safer. They will deprive the world of the full array of American political and moral leadership when it has never been more needed. We urge the administration and our colleagues in Congress not to make that mistake” (6/15).