US LAWMAKERS UNVEIL $10-B FOREIGN AID CUTS
House Republicans have unveiled legislation slashing $10 billion from foreign aid, a sharp reduction but not as deep a cut as President Donald Trump wants.
In a flurry of summertime activity, congressional panels in the House and Senate released various spending bills to fund government agencies and departments in 2018. The GOP-led panels concurred with some of Trump's request, such as his down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall, while rejecting others such as a significant reduction in medical research.
At issue are the 12 annual spending bills to funding annual agency operations. Republicans controlling Congress have announced plans to rejected Trump's proposal to cut non-defense programs by more than $50 billion and they're adding about $30 billion to his request for defense.
Democrats strongly oppose the wall and funding for Trump proposals such as 1,000 additional immigration agents and say additional funding is needed for domestic programs and foreign aid.
"It is targeting people who have lived, work, and pay tax- es in this country for years or even decades with no criminal infractions," said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif. "The trauma that is being inflicted on entire communities throughout our country cannot be overstated."
Trump wanted to cut almost $17 billion from foreign aid. House Republicans proposed a reduction of $10 billion.
The House foreign aid cuts spared Israel and Egypt and ex- empted the budget for protecting U.S. embassies overseas. But it slashed U.S. payments to the United Nations by $600 million and cut funding for multilateral organizations focused on topics such as climate change and debt relief by more than 60 percent. Direct U.S. economic aid to poor and unstable nations absorbed a $4.2 billion cut to $22.7 billion.
House Republicans made good on promises to reject Trump's proposal to slash medical research at the National Institutes of Health by more than $7 billion.
Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security funding subcommittee also approved a $1.6 billion down payment to construct Trump's long promised wall along the U.S-Mexico border, including funding for three segments of wall and fence in Texas and the city of San Diego.
House measures funding the departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Interior also advanced, while the counterpart Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled a $6 billion increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs and construction projects at military facilities.