Too Tempting a Target?
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:17PM | Russell Rumbaugh Function 150, International Affairs, did well in the President’s budget request. It received the biggest increase from FY12 of any agency—$4B over FY12. The administration also requested an additional $8.2B in OCO funding for State, following-up on last year’s request.
But the request might jeopardize f150 funding too. Since the supercommittee failed, the Budget Control Act switches the capped spending categories from security/non-security to defense/non-defense. F150 is one of the accounts that would flip, moving from security into non-defense. The administration has proposed keeping the security/non-security divide, requiring Congress to revise the BCA as it currently stands. But that would put f150 back in a cage with the Department of Defense, who took the third-largest cut, -$5B, any agency received this year. If Congress follows past precedent, it will be tempted to filch some of the increase from f150 and restore DoD’s cut.