WASHINGTON (AP) — A hard–fought budget deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders will result in reductions in military spending and foreign aid, including millions of dollars in reductions for the United Nations and a fund that fights world hunger and poverty.
It all adds up to billions less for the Defense and State Departments than what Obama had requested for the budget year ending Sept. 30, a reflection of the widespread congressional belief that every element of government spending is on the chopping block in an era of trillion–dollar–plus deficits.
The last–minute budget deal negotiated by the president, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, and Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, calls for $513 billion for defense, a cut of $18.1 billion from what the administration envisioned but $5 billion more than last year’s amount. War costs for Iraq and Afghanistan would be covered separately at a cost of $158 billion.
The State Department and foreign operations would get $48.3 billion, an $8.4 billion reduction from Obama’s proposal and a cut of $504 million from last year. The House and Senate are expected to vote this week on the overall package of $38 billion in cuts.
On foreign aid, the White House and congressional leaders agreed to significant across–the–board cuts.
The U.S. contribution to the United Nations and other international organizations would be cut by $377 million. Pay for foreign service officers would be frozen. The Global Agriculture and Food Security Fund, created to fight world hunger and poverty, would get just $100 million, far less than the $408 million than Obama sought.
The negotiators agreed to cuts in the millions for international banks, the U.N. Population Fund and international narcotics control and law enforcement programs.
“It took a big hit and I think it will cost us a lot more money in the future,” bemoaned Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign aid.
The bill would provide $2.5 billion for the Global Health and Child Survival account, $80 million more than last year. The program tries to protect children from malaria and other diseases and save others in childbirth.
In a major policy win for Obama and the Democrats, the bill does not include a provision barring U.S. funds to foreign private organizations that use their own money to provide abortion services.
An alternative engine for the multibillion–dollar Joint Strike Fighter was the target of a battle cry for cost–cutting Republican newcomers in February.
House Republican freshmen led the charge to cancel $450 million for a second engine for the nearly 2,500 F–35 fighters the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps plan to buy and fly over the next 40 years. Neither Obama nor Defense Secretary Robert Gates wanted the second engine, with Gates telling Congress that it required an additional $3 billion to develop and that spending such money “in a time of economic distress” was a waste.
But Boehner and other House Republican leaders backed the extra engine built by General Electric and Rolls Royce in Ohio and Indiana.
Fears that it would be revived in the compromise bill proved unfounded.
Last month, the Pentagon ordered a halt to work on the second engine. It plans to buy engines solely from Pratt & Whitney of Hartford, Connecticut.
Still, officials in the defense industry say proponents of the alternative engine may try to restore the money in future military budgets, long after Gates has retired as defense secretary.
In February, Gates said his bottom line number for the defense budget was $540 billion, tens of billions more than what the White House and congressional leaders worked out.
Consistent with recent defense legislation, the bill bars the transfer of terrorist suspects held at the Navy–run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the United State and prevents construction of facilities in the U.S. to house detainees.
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