Cuts target program honoring slain envoy

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has zeroed out of the State Department budget a request from a nonprofit set up in honor of Christopher Stevens, the ambassador killed in Benghazi, Libya, in a 2012 terrorist attack.

The agency’s fiscal 2021 budget proposal cuts $420 million from its educational and cultural programs, including $5 million for the Stevens Initiative, an organization created to memorialize the late ambassador’s dedication to cultivating international exchanges.

This appears to be at least the third time that dedicated funding for the program has been removed by Trump administration budget officials. For the past two years, Congress has restored it.

A State Department official, who provided information on the condition of anonymity to discuss official matters, defended the suggested cut, saying that even if it isn’t included in a final budget, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Stevens program will lose funding.

The attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi became the focus of a Republican-led effort to blame then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for failing to protect Stevens and the three other Americans who were killed.

In 2016, Donald Trump, then a candidate, used the attack to criticize Clinton, saying, “by the way, with Benghazi and with our ambassador — remember? That’s all Hillary Clinton, folks.”

One of the more outspoken GOP lawmakers during that time was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then a conservative congressman from Kansas only in his second term. As a member of the GOP-led House Select Committee on Benghazi, he publicly grilled Clinton and other State Department officials over who to fault for the security lapse.