Lanterna Rally

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Published: 2007

Total Pages: 53

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The annual State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies appropriations bill is the primary legislative vehicle through which Congress reviews the U.S. international affairs budget and influences executive branch foreign policy making in general. Funding for Foreign Operations and State Department/Broadcasting programs has been steadily rising since FY2002, and amounts approved for FY2004 in regular and supplemental bills reached an unprecedented level compared with the past 40 years. Emergency supplementals enacted since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to assist the front-line states in the war on terrorism, fund Afghanistan and Iraq reconstruction, and upgrade State Department operations and security upgrades, also have pushed spending upward. For the first time, House and Senate bills encompass both State Department and foreign operations spending. In the 109th Congress, House and Senate jurisdictions did not coincide, with the House including the State Department in the Science, State, Justice and Commerce appropriations bill, and the Senate folding the State Department into the Foreign Operations bill. Prior to the 109th Congress, the State Department was funded in both the House and Senate Commerce, State, and Justice bills, and Foreign Operations was funded in its own measure. This report is divided into two parts. The first section analyzes the FY2008 budget request and funding trends, including major issues Congress may consider. The second section tracks congressional action.