US funding of UN to be reduced by 87%

From Devex:

On Friday, the White House released a budget outline that would end U.S. foreign assistance as we know it.

The so-called skinny budget proposes a nearly 48% cut to foreign aid spending. In addition, the budget plan signals that the White House will try to rescind about $20 billion that Congress already appropriated. Taken together, the cuts and rescissions would add up to a roughly 84% reduction in U.S. foreign aid.

Adjusted for inflation, the proposal would bring the U.S. international affairs budget to its lowest level since World War II, and amount to less than Americans spend on Halloween supplies — both stats courtesy of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

In its proposal, the White House repeatedly slams U.S. foreign aid programs for allegedly supporting “radical, leftist priorities” — while in the same breath proposing the creation of a $2.9 billion “America First Opportunity Fund” whose activities could include those “critical to keeping American safe, such as repatriations,” as well as funding for “critical partners.”

Aid budget experts tell my colleagues that the administration’s blueprint attempts to cherry-pick the few aid programs it deems tolerable— parts of the country’s flagship HIV program, PEPFAR, for example…

Some key figures:

• The White House wants to cut both global health and humanitarian assistance funds in half. Global health would see a $6.2 billion reduction.

• United Nations funding would drop by 87%.

• The White House wants to eliminate most of the accounts that currently fund long-term development — such as the Economic Support Fund and development assistance.

• The proposal includes $3.2 billion over three years for the World Bank’s International Development Association. That’s $800 million less than former President Joe Biden committed to IDA last December, but some had expected Trump to zero out IDA funding entirely.

• The State Department and USAID operations would see about $2.5 billion cut, as the administration moves forward with eliminating USAID and reducing staff. [Can this be correct? USAID’s budget was about $44 Billion, and the State Dept’s budget was nearly that large. I thought most of USAID funding was being cut and the State Dept. shrunk—Nass]