Zombie Policy on International Family Planning Rises Again
On his first day in the office, President Trump signed an executive order reinstating a 30-year-old political hot potato, the “Mexico City Policy." Like many, I will point out that reinstating the...
View ArticleWhat Tillerson’s Leadership Could Mean for US Development Policy
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted yesterday to give the greenlight to Rex Tillerson’s nomination for Secretary of State. Assuming he is confirmed by the full Senate—which at this point is...
View ArticleCutting UN Funding Will Cost the US
The New York Timesreported yesterday that the Trump Administration is considering a new Executive Order that mandates cutting all funding to bodies that give full membership to the Palestinian...
View ArticleExecutive Orders Affecting Refugees Will Only Harm the US National Interest
Among the wave of executive orders being developed by the Trump administration, so far two specifically target US commitments to refugees. They are consistent with Trump’s campaign promises to tighten...
View ArticleShould the Trump Administration Cut USAID to Expand MCC?
Though the spirit of the proposal—a fundamental desire to make US foreign aid more effective—deserves widespread support, any plan to supersize MCC by drastically cutting or eliminating USAID is...
View ArticleExtractive Industry Transparency Rule Subject to Long Battle, Poised to Meet...
President Trump and many congressional Republicans have made no secret of their strong interest in dismantling “Dodd-Frank,” a law signed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to strengthen...
View ArticleMaybe the Trump Administration Just Elevated Development Policy, or Maybe Not
The inclusion of White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon on the National Security Council (NSC), as a break from long standing practice, has garnered most of the attention paid to the recent NSC...
View ArticleCuts to the 150 Account: Searching for a Constructive Path Forward in Foreign...
With major cuts to foreign assistance expected in the Trump administration’s budget preview later this week, CGD’s US Development Policy Initiative hosted experts from across the political spectrum to...
View ArticleThe Foreign Aid Cuts Look to Be Real Enough, but the Trump Administration...
So it turns out the “skinny budget” released by the White House is really just a press release—a sprinkling of numbers amidst a lot of assertion and characterization of the real budget that is yet to...
View ArticleMCC and Vulnerable States
The debate at a recent CGD event eloquently demonstrated once again that this is a moment of deep uncertainty and basic disagreement about the future and purpose of aid programs and development...
View ArticleThe Trump Administration Budget Wants to Shut Down OPIC. Instead, Super-Size It.
The budget just released zeroes out the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the nation’s development finance institution. In an era where many government agencies are under threat, it may not be...
View ArticleSkinny Budget Skinny on Details
The Trump Administration’s skinny budget is a bit of a public relations exercise in trying to have it both ways on the 150 Account, as observed by our colleague Scott Morris. We’re going to cut...
View ArticlePutting Foreign Aid Cuts in Context
Put funding for the 150 account in context, and you better understand the broader trend and two crucial points: (1) the 150 Account is a tiny slice of the federal budget, so proposed cuts will...
View ArticleCongress Looks at World Bank, Asks How It Can Do Better
With big cuts to US bilateral and multilateral assistance looming, the House Committee on Financial Services convened a hearing to investigate accountability and results at the World Bank. Scott...
View ArticleHouse Panel Finds Near Consensus against Foreign Aid Cuts
While we don’t often blog congressional hearings, yesterday’s discussion of “The Budget, Diplomacy, and Development” in the House Foreign Affairs Committee struck us as especially important given the...
View ArticleComments Needed: A Better Deal to Protect Americans’ Health under the Trump...
We would argue that investing in global health, at least along certain dimensions, is entirely consistent with President Trump’s philosophy of America First—a real opportunity for his administration to...
View ArticleResponding to Cambodia’s Request for Debt Cancellation
Cambodia’s Prime Minister and former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen has called on the Trump administration to cancel Cambodia’s debt to the US Government incurred by the Lon Nol regime in the 1970s....
View ArticleA No More Tiers Formula to Clean Up Corruption
A bipartisan group of eight Senators led by Senate Foreign Relations Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD) has just reintroduced a new version of a bill designed to identify and combat corruption overseas....
View ArticleOne More Reason Not to Kill OPIC—It’s a Leader on Transparency
The Administration’s proposed skinny budget zeroes out the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US government’s development finance institution (DFI). There are multiple reasons why...
View ArticleOur First Peek at Trump’s Aid Budget: Big Changes, but Will Congress Play Along?
After months of speculation inside the foreign aid community, President Trump’s vision for development assistance is coming into clearer focus. Foreign Policy this week published a leaked copy of an...
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