Devex: Proposed U.S. budget cuts ‘insane,’ senator says at hearing with USAID chief
“U.S. Senate appropriators were quick to dismiss the administration’s budget request, which proposed slashing global development funding. Instead, they asked several questions to highlight areas where they thought the proposed cuts would be particularly detrimental in a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday. They didn’t, however, seem to blame U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green, who was testifying. ‘We’re not going to approve this budget reduction. It’s insane, it makes no sense, it makes us less safe,’ Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who chairs the state and foreign operations subcommittee, said of the budget. … He added that he was confident the committee would restore the … cut, which he called a short-sighted approach to the problems in the world. … Graham asked Green if USAID could wisely spend the additional money if Congress restored the proposed cuts, to which Green replied yes. … The wide-ranging hearing addressed a number of foreign aid priorities, including: … Global Health … Mexico City Policy…” (Saldinger, 5/1).