WASHINGTON (Reuters) – State Department officials briefed Senate staff on Friday on plans to cut up to $10 billion from the department\u2019s budget over five years, but offered few specifics to ease concerns that the administration risked weakening U.S. standing in the world. <\/p>\n
The plan is the result of an ongoing assessment of the department ordered by President Donald Trump\u2019s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. <\/p>\n
It includes broad goals such as \u201cmaximizing the impact of foreign assistance\u201d and \u201cimproving governance\u201d for information technology platforms, according to a copy of the presentation seen by Reuters. <\/p>\n
Members of Congress have been vying with the Trump administration for more influence over foreign policy. In particular, many lawmakers, including some of Trump\u2019s fellow Republicans, worry about his plans to slash the State Department budget to help boost military spending. <\/p>\n
The Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee issued a blistering report last week accompanying its spending plan for State, accusing the Trump administration of pursuing a \u201cdoctrine of retreat\u201d on foreign policy. <\/p>\n
Last week, the committee voted 31-0 for legislation allocating more than $51 billion for the State Department and foreign operations next year, nearly $11 billion more than the Trump administration\u2019s request. <\/p>\n
The presentation was more specific as it listed what State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) did not intend to do. That list said there is no plan to dismantle State and USAID, eliminate the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, or concentrate power in Tillerson\u2019s hands. <\/p>\n
A Senate aide who attended said both Republicans and Democrats seemed frustrated at the lack of specifics. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was tense in the room at times, with staff from both parties asking for specifics and warning the State Department officials that it would be difficult to defend this given the lack of specificity and the ongoing problems with early, consistent Congressional consultation on a range of issues,\u201d the aide said. <\/p>\n
Tillerson wants to eliminate more than 2,000 positions at State, out of some 75,000 worldwide. <\/p>\n
At a news conference this week, Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee that oversees State Department spending, spoke of his opposition to such cuts to diplomacy and foreign aid. <\/p>\n
\u201cI fear that we\u2019re going to get caught blindsided without a robust State Department,\u201d Graham said, saying that ensuring national security requires soft power as well as a strong military. <\/p>\n
Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/PoliticsNews\/~3\/Apqk5G5UH7c\/state-department-describes-plans-for-cuts-offers-few-specifics-sources-idUSKCN1BQ2WR<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – State Department officials briefed Senate staff on Friday on plans to cut up to $10 billion from the department\u2019s budget over five years, but offered few specifics to ease concerns that the administration risked weakening U.S. standing in the world. The plan is the result of an ongoing assessment of the department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-91428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}