Roll Call: White House keeping foreign aid spending on a tight leash

“The White House is slowly releasing its previous hold on State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development funds that lapse after Sept. 30, according to sources familiar with the move. But the agencies still could face difficulty spending it all before the deadline. The Office of Management and Budget has required that the remaining funds in 10 accounts be ‘apportioned,’ or parceled out, in one-quarter increments on the first four Sundays in September. … The new apportionment is a change requested by State officials, according to a senior administration official. It provides more flexibility than an earlier apportionment allowing State and USAID to obligate roughly 2 percent of the remaining funds per day for the remainder of the fiscal year…” (Krawzak, 9/11).