Houston Chronicle: Natsios: Maintaining foreign aid keeps ‘America First’
Andrew Natsios, executive professor at Texas A&M University and director of the school’s Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs

“…President Trump should … reset his administration’s budget priorities and roll back the draconian cuts [to U.S. foreign assistance]. Cuts of this magnitude will require the cancellation of entire programs and the closing of the offices and missions that carry them out. Under the proposal, the United States would no longer be able to fund programs that help refugees remain protected in their home countries, that fight pandemics — such as Zika and Ebola — before they come to the United States, and that address state fragility and failure that attracts terrorist networks. … [E]vents around the globe are bound to have a magnified impact on our prosperity and way of life. International affairs spending — which represents [less than] one percent of the federal budget — is a cost-effective way to advance our interests. I urge my fellow Texans, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, to work with our congressional delegation to provide no less than current-level funding for the State Department and America’s foreign assistance programs” (4/25).