Truman Fellow and Director of Aid Effectiveness at Oxfam America Director, Greg Adams, has a great piece up about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifying on Capitol Hill about the importance of international development funding:
“The Obama administration has been forcefully arguing why our investment in fighting global poverty is so important to the United States’ core interests. The President’s FY13 budget request explicitly links foreign affairs funding to efforts to advance ‘the security of the American people, the prosperity and trade that creates American jobs, and support for universal values around the world.’ And Congress seems to be agreeing; last year, Congress eventually voted to maintain US spending to fight global poverty.”
Secretary Clinton is working hard to make the case this week that today’s economic challenges should not inhibit US diplomatic and development efforts abroad. And thankfully, some elected leaders like Senator John Kerry are listening. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed this morning, the Senator, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defended foreign aid on the basis of national security and economic prosperity.
We’ll be closely following along as the international affairs budget makes its way through the House. It’s got a long way to go before it makes its way into a final bill — stay tuned.
