{ "id": "R43569", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R43569", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 437212, "date": "2015-01-16", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:39:09.081674", "title": "State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2015 Budget and Appropriations", "summary": "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.\nThe annual State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill (also referred to here as \u201cforeign affairs appropriations\u201d or \u201cforeign affairs funding\u201d) 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.) \nOn 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. \nOf 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. \nKey aspects of the Administration request that interested some Members of the 113th Congress included\n$4.59 billion requested for enduring diplomatic security funding to continue implementing post-Benghazi Accountability Review Board recommendations in FY2015, 4.7% more than estimated for these same accounts in FY2014;\na twice-amended OCO request for funding to the frontline states of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan; including an additional $278 million for estimated costs of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic within the new Peacekeeping Response Mechanism (PKRM); an additional $75 million within Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for security reform in Europe; $1 billion to enhance counterterrorism and crisis response activities within a Counterterrorism Partnership Fund; and $520 million to assist Syrian opposition groups and address humanitarian needs related to IS attacks in Iraq and Syria.\n$2.896 billion for humanitarian and health care activities related to the Ebola virus outbreak, including a $792 million contingency fund to increase flexibility in addressing future Ebola-related needs.\nsupport for the Administration\u2019s ongoing development initiatives: Global Health, Global Climate Change, and Feed the Future, as well as $114.3 million for new Africa initiatives; and\nan additional request for a new government-wide Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative that would provide more than $760 million to foreign affairs programs, beyond the regular budget request.\nThe House and Senate Appropriations Committees reported FY2015 SFOPs bills out of committee on June 27 and June 9, respectively. The House committee bill (H.R. 5013) recommended $48.45 billion in total, including $5.19 billion designated as OCO. The Senate committee bill (S. 2499) recommended a funding total of $47.18 billion, with $8.63 billion designated as OCO. Both bills were reported before the Administration amended the OCO request, twice, and requested emergency funds to address the Ebola outbreak. Final funding levels are compared to FY2014 funding estimates and the FY2015 request (as amended, when noted) throughout this report and in Appendix A and Appendix B.\nSince the House and Senate were unable to pass regular appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year, they passed H.J.Res. 124, Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015 (CR), on September 17 and 18, 2014, respectively. The President signed the CR into law (P.L. 113-164) on September 19, 2014. The CR funded government agencies and programs at an across-the-board reduction of .0554% below the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76), funding rate through December 11, 2014. OCO funds were not subject to the reduction. The CR included some anomalies, including one for foreign affairs that provided the Department of State with the ability to exceed the rate for operations applied to funds in a number of accounts in order to sustain assistance for Ukraine and other independent states in that region for programs, such as international broadcasting, economic, and security assistance.\nTwo additional CRs\u2014P.L. 113-202 and H.J.Res. 131\u2014were passed to keep the government funded until passage of the full-year appropriations bill could occur.\nTotal funding for the State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs over the past 10 years has ranged from a low of $35.85 billion (including supplemental appropriations) in FY2006 to a high of $53.00 billion in FY2012 (including war-related Overseas Contingency Operations, OCO, appropriations). With the exception of FY2015, it has declined each year since FY2012, attributable, perhaps, to passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25). Appendix A (State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs) and Appendix B (function 150) tables provide side-by-side account-level funding data for FY2014 estimated funding, the amended FY2015 request, and FY2015-enacted levels.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R43569", "sha1": "e68d0fb95bade581dd73adbd8d2668d8ab5e364b", "filename": "files/20150116_R43569_e68d0fb95bade581dd73adbd8d2668d8ab5e364b.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R43569", "sha1": "0aad2b052728fa2e7e63a5cbef0b6d54b485c55b", "filename": "files/20150116_R43569_0aad2b052728fa2e7e63a5cbef0b6d54b485c55b.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 2344, "name": "State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3467, "name": "Foreign Aid" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc490960/", "id": "R43569_2014Dec08", "date": "2014-12-08", "retrieved": "2015-01-27T19:40:46", "title": "State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2015 Budget and Appropriations", "summary": "This report tracks the FY2015 State Department, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations process. It includes information about recent actions, current requests and past trends, state operations and related agencies, and foreign operations.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20141208_R43569_66fbeb8075aca1e628904e6c86e510a4c8bc6342.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20141208_R43569_66fbeb8075aca1e628904e6c86e510a4c8bc6342.html", "source": "pymupdf" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Appropriations", "name": "Appropriations" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Budget process", "name": "Budget process" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Budgets", "name": "Budgets" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306432/", "id": "R43569_2014May27", "date": "2014-05-27", "retrieved": "2014-07-08T21:53:44", "title": "State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2015 Budget and Appropriations", "summary": "This report tracks the FY2015 State Department, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations process. It includes information about recent actions, current requests and past trends, state operations and related agencies, and foreign operations.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20140527_R43569_cb141c83569cdf15894549b5e2582cb778a54446.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20140527_R43569_cb141c83569cdf15894549b5e2582cb778a54446.html", "source": "pymupdf" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Appropriations", "name": "Appropriations" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Budgets", "name": "Budgets" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Budget process", "name": "Budget process" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Foreign Affairs", "Intelligence and National Security", "National Defense" ] }