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President Trump’s first budget, called “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” released this past spring, called for an almost 30 percent cut in funding for the State Department and international programs. It did not specify whether the OECD funding would be continued, but included the following statement that has caught the attention of everyone in Washington who works in the realm of foreign policy.

“The budget proposes to reduce or end direct funding for international programs and organizations whose missions do not substantially advance U.S. foreign policy interests.”

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The OECD is not specifically defunded in the House Appropriations bill either, though the bill does name four other international organizations for which Congress will not approve funding this year: the Green Climate Fund, UNESCO, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the U.N. Population Fund. It will also specifically does not provide funding for international debt relief.

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The Republican Study Committee budget goes further, proposing that all U.S. funding be cut for the OECD and for Global Green Energy and Climate Change. It seeks the cap on U.S. peacekeeping missions to be enforced. And it proposes for the following to be eliminated: the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund, the Complex Crises Fund, the East-West Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTA), the Inter-American Foundation, the Asia Foundation, and the United States African Development Foundation.

Only later in the budget process will it become apparent whether U.S. taxpayers will continue to fund the OECD to the tune of more than $77 million a year.

“Simply stated, I can’t imagine a more egregious way of wasting American tax dollars,” Mitchell told LifeZette this week, saying the only way OECD funding will be stopped is if the White House or members of Congress intervene in the appropriations process to make that happen.

(photo credit, homepage image: Gage Skidmore)[lz_pagination]