U.S. Foreign Aid Reform: Will The Congress Work for a Smart Power Budget?

Many readers of our piece last week on U.S. foreign aid reform, Billions for War, Pennies for the Poor: Moving the President's FY2008 Budget from Hard Power to Smart Power, have asked for the state of play on Congressional mark-ups of the International Affairs budget itself. With a nod to the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign for their terrific up to date coverage, here's where we're at:The Senate passed, by unanimous consent, an amendment led by Senators Smith and Dodd to restore $2.2 billion to the International Affairs Budget. The Senate completed its FY2008 Budget Resolution restoring the full FY08 president's request of $36.5 billion. The full House Budget Resolution will be voted on this week, including what is now a $35.3 billion ($1.2 billion below the president's request) International Affairs Budget. Passage of the House Budget resolution will be followed by a conference committee between the two chambers to work out differences between their bills.And, in the midst of the budget debate, CSIS launches a Commission on Smart Power that aims to create a strategic vision for how the United States can integrate soft and hard power into "smart power" to address current and future challenges. Let us hope that the Congress doesn't need the Commission report to be smart now about right-balancing our defense, diplomacy and development priorities.