Administration
The Trump administration continues to focus on the relief effort for areas affected by hurricanes.
On September 26th, Malala Yousafzai met with Ambassador Green, Representatives Rogers (R-KY) and Lowey (D-NY) and Senators Leahy and Shaheen to discuss girls education.
Budget
There was a flurry of activity on the budget in Congress, with the House passing its FY18 Budget Resolution and the Senate Budget Committee marking up its own. Each version lays out broad spending priorities but they are mainly considered vehicles for tax reform. Below is a Budget Snapshot, courtesy of USGLC, outlining the differences between the FY18 Budgets and Appropriation Bills. For additional information about the Federal Budget Process, please see this policy 101 document by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Moving forward, we expect the Senate budget resolution to make it to the floor by the end of the month. Once the Senate passes its version, both chambers will work to reconcile the resolutions, allowing Congress to pass tax reform.
There is growing consensus that any budget deal will require the lifting of the caps on defense and non-defense spending. The current FY18 CR expires on December 8th. It will be essential to any deal that the non-defense cap is raised to properly fund development and diplomacy programs.
Legislation
HR 2408, the Protecting Girls’ Access to Education Act, passed the House of Representative on Tuesday, October 3rd. The bill’s lead sponsors are Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Robin Kelly (D-IL). This legislation priorities programs that support access to displaced children, especially girls. Additionally, it requires State and USAID to include data on education programs for displaced children in any report to Congress on disaster relief and recovery efforts. You can find the Republican Policy Committee summary and cost estimate here.
Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced S. 1928, the Multilateral Aid Review Act on October 5th. The bill authorizes a methodologically-based assessment to evaluate contributions to multilateral institutions. You can find a summary of the bill here.