This report provides an overview and highlights of budget requests for the State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Appropriations (SFOPS). It includes information from the previous fiscal years with an account-by-account comparison of the FY2017 request to the FY2016 estimates and FY2015 actuals in Appendix A.
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. This book analyses the FY2008 budget request and funding trends, including major issues Congress may consider, and tracks congressional action. Major issues confronting the 110th Congress include: The overall size of the budget request that represents an 11% increase over FY2007 enacted levels; A foreign aid reform plan that seeks to align assistance with U.S. strategic objectives; Significant increases for Presidential initiatives; Continued costs relating to Iraq and Afghanistan; and Secretary Rice's Transformational Diplomacy initiative for the State Department.
On February 1, 2010, President Obama submitted a budget proposal for FY2011 that requests $58.49 billion for the international affairs budget, a 16% increase over the enacted FY2010 funding level. This report analyzes the FY2011 request, recent-year funding trends, and congressional action related to FY2011 State-Foreign Operations legislation.
On December 16, 2014, Congress presented the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (H.R. 83), to the President, who signed it into law (P.L. 113-235) that same day. In Division J of that act, Congress appropriated $51.98 billion for the Department of State and Foreign Operations, including $9.26 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and $2.53 billion to address the Ebola crisis. The annual State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill (also referred to here as "foreign affairs appropriations" or "foreign affairs funding") is the primary legislative vehicle through which Congress reviews the U.S. international affairs budget and influences executive branch foreign policymaking. (Foreign relations authorization and foreign assistance authorization legislation, required by law prior to State Department and foreign aid expenditures, are also available to Congress to influence foreign policy, but Congress has not passed either since FY2003 and FY1985, respectively. Instead, Congress has waived the requirement within the appropriations laws.) On March 4, 2014, the Obama Administration submitted to Congress its budget request for FY2015. The original request for State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs totaled $48.62 billion, including $5.91 billion for OCO funding. The Administration amended this request on June 27, 2014 by increasing OCO funds and updating export assistance estimates, thus raising the overall total to $50.08 billion. The Administration further amended the request in November 2014 for emergency funding to address the Ebola crisis in Africa and for civilian activities to counter the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS). The amended FY2015 request totaled $53.50 billion, 8.8% more than the FY2014-enacted level. Of the total FY2015 request, as amended, 14.6% was designated as OCO (compared to 13.3% in FY2014) and 5.4% was designated as emergency funding (compared to no emergency funding in FY2014). $17.18 billion was for State Department Operations and related agencies, an 8.3% increase from the FY2014 funding estimate of $15.86 billion. For Foreign Operations, the Administration requested $36.32 billion, a 7.7% increase from the FY2014 estimate of $33.72 billion.