Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs: FY2019 Budget and Appropriations

Summary

The Trump Administration submitted to Congress its FY2019 budget request on February 12, 2018. The proposal includes $41.86 billion for the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS). Of that amount, $13.26 billion would be for State Department operations, international broadcasting, and related agencies, and $28.60 billion for foreign operations. With the enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA; P.L. 115-123, February 9, 2018), which raised discretionary spending limits set by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25), the Administration’s FY2019 foreign affairs funding request is entirely within enduring (base) funds; no Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding is in the SFOPS request for the first time since FY2012.

Comparing the request with the FY2018-enacted funding levels, the FY2019 request represents a 22.7% decrease in SFOPS funding. The proposed State and related agency funding would be 18.23% below FY2018 enacted and the foreign operations funding would be reduced by 24.7%. In the State and related programs budget, cuts are proposed for the diplomatic security accounts (the Worldwide Security Protection programmatic allocation within the Diplomatic and Consular Programs account and, separately, the Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance account), contributions to international organizations, and contributions for international peacekeeping activities. In the foreign operations budget, cuts would be applied across all accounts, with disproportionately large cuts proposed for humanitarian assistance, multilateral assistance, and funding for bilateral development programs focused on agriculture, education, and democracy promotion.

This report provides an account-by-account comparison of the FY2019 SFOPS request to the FY2018-enacted funding in Appendix A. The International Affairs (function 150) budget in Appendix B provides a similar comparison.

This report will be updated to reflect congressional activity on FY2019 appropriations.