Director of policy outreach Sarah Jane Staats was quoted in an Associated Press article on U.S. budget cuts and China's growing influence in the developing world.
From the Article
U.S. efforts to counter China's growing influence in the developing world are a likely casualty of the budget battles dominating Washington's politics, as chunks of the foreign aid program face the ax.
That could hurt not just the world's poor, but America's reach in emerging markets where China has ramped up investment and provided easy credit.
The Obama administration has sought to step up its engagement in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. Development aid is a key plank of its strategy. The State Department argues it is "as central to advancing America's interests as diplomacy and defense."
But that aid, like all federal spending, is under pressure as lawmakers debate how to reel in the government's deficit, forecast at $1.5 trillion this year. Much of the red ink is financed by China.
"Since World War II, the world has looked to the United States for leadership in poverty reduction," said Sarah Jane Staats of the Washington-based Center for Global Development. "It's not clear in the current environment whether the U.S. will be able to do that."
Even funds allotted for emergency humanitarian aid - the kind that burnished U.S. standing after the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia - could be slashed.
The Republican-led House voted last month to cut federal spending by $60 billion for the budget year ending in September in a bill that would have hit foreign aid particularly hard - cutting disaster assistance by 49 percent. Funds for international financial institutions like the World Bank would have been cut by 44 percent and aid to refugees by 39 percent.