Devex: Lawmakers question USAID administrator on budget request
“Federal lawmakers questioned United States Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green Wednesday about how he could carry out the agency’s mission with the administration’s proposed budget cuts and pushed him on issues ranging from humanitarian crises to girls education to democracy building. Green was testifying at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about the administration’s proposed fiscal year 2019 budget … Later on Wednesday, Congress unveiled its budget agreement for fiscal year 2018, which includes more modest cuts to foreign aid funding. … [Green] was pressed on the impacts of the reinstatement of the ‘global gag rule,’ and asked about issues of sexual harassment and assault plaguing the aid industry by some members of Congress. At the end of the year, the State Department and USAID will put out a more detailed report about the impacts of the Mexico City policy, adding that the budget request for fiscal year 2019 had $302 million requested from family planning [and reproductive health], funds that weren’t requested in fiscal year 2018, Green said’…” (Saldinger, 3/22).