Additional $4.8B Sought for Foreign Assistance in 2009
FrontLines - May 2009
By Angela Rucker
In an urgent supplemental
request, President Barack
Obama has asked Congress for
an additional $4.8 billion in
foreign assistance to increase
staffing in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, fund ongoing programs
in Iraq, and carry out an
urgent list of other activities
for fiscal year 2009.
The money is part of an
$83.4 billion supplemental
request sent to Congress
April 9 to fund U.S. military,
diplomatic, and intelligence
operations in fiscal year
2009. The request includes
$2.3 billion for State
Department operations,
bringing the total request for
additional foreign aid and
operations to $7.1 billion.
It comes on top of the
more than $40 billion already
appropriated in 2009 for foreign
assistance and for State
and USAID operations.
The Agency will use some
of the additional money to
support the Obama administration’s
new strategy for
Afghanistan and Pakistan,
which calls for an increased
focus on regional development
along with an increased military
presence in Afghanistan.
At press time, Congress
had taken up the measure,
but had not approved it.
If the funding is appropriated,
USAID plans to deploy
150 additional U.S. staff to
Afghanistan, and add a
smaller number of staff to its
operations in Pakistan.
Specifics in the request
include:
- $375 million for good
governance at the national,
provincial, and municipal
levels in Afghanistan;
- $464 million for economic
growth, including job creation
in the Afghan agricultural
sector;
- $104 million for counternarcotics
and alternative livelihood
programs in
Afghanistan’s poppy growing
regions;
- $497 million in aid for
Pakistan; and
- $482 million for democracy
and governance support and
economic development in Iraq.
Funding would also help
fulfill the recent pledge by
Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton to assist people
in the West Bank and Gaza,
and assist developing countries
affected by the worldwide economic
downturn.
★
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