CQ News: House Panel Advances Foreign Aid Bill; Lowey Predicts Major Overhaul
“A House subcommittee advanced a bill on Wednesday to fund the State Department and foreign aid programs with the panel’s top Democrat predicting the measure would have to be substantively re-worked due to the president’s veto threat. The House Appropriations State-Foreign Operations panel unanimously approved by voice vote its draft fiscal 2016 spending bill. The measure falls … below the amount sought by the Obama administration and is $1.4 billion less than current levels…” (Oswald, 6/3).

Devex: USAID, economic programs come up short in U.S. budget talks
“…Despite these cuts, [Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas)], who recently expressed concerns that USAID is ‘too big,’ praised the bill for restoring funds to health-related programming, originally cut by about four percent in the president’s request, and for singling out wildlife programs. Granger called the bill ‘first and foremost a national security bill,’ in her opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing…” (Anders, 6/5).