Friend –

A ton certainly happened this past week in Washington – but before heading out for the holidays, I want to share a quick update on the international front.

In the final flurry of legislation, I’m really pleased with the number of bipartisan bills that were just signed into law on global development and diplomacy. And the final results for the International Affairs Budget – resources for the State Department, USAID, and other development agencies ­­– are a complete rejection of the original calls to cut a quarter of our footprint in the world!

Take a quick read of the final GLOBAL GAB of 2019 with the latest on:

• The new laws just passed to help tackle global hot spots 
• Foreign policy highlights from the most recent debate
• The new foreign policy players to watch in 2020

Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season. I’m taking a few books on the road with me – please do drop me note as I’d love to know what you’re reading over the break.

Warmest wishes,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC

THE GLOBAL GAB
December 23, 2019

BY THE NUMBERS. The year started with a 24% cut to America’s footprint around the world – proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget – and ended with Congress approving a 1% increase over the 2019 funding level for diplomacy and development. While most foreign policy experts consider this nowhere near adequate given the scope of challenges around the world, it’s an important rejection of what Senator Lindsey Graham called “the doctrine of retreat”.

• For more details, read our Budget Team’s full analysis of the Fiscal Year 2020 spending hill here.

BIPARTISANSHIP FOR THE WIN. The president signed into law several important pieces of bipartisan legislation that advance America’s role in the world:

• The Global Fragility Act will step up a comprehensive U.S. strategy to prevent extremism and promote stability in some of the toughest global hotspots, led by Senators Coons, Graham, Merkley, Rubio, and Young alongside Reps. Engel, McCaul, Smith, Wagner, Keating, and Rooney.
   
• The Championing American Business Through Diplomacy Act is an important agenda – championed by House Foreign Affairs leaders McCaul and Engel – to bolster U.S. competitiveness abroad and strengthen U.S. economic and commercial diplomacy at the Departments of State and Commerce.
   
• The End NTD Act will improve the ability of USAID and the CDC to tackle neglected tropical diseases affecting more than 1 billion people around the world, led by Reps. Smith, McCaul, Bass, Sherman, Meeks, and Cicilline and Senators Brown and Wicker.

UPPING OUR GAME. With its inaugural funding now passed, the new U.S. International Development Finance Corporation – formerly the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) – is official with CEO Adam Boehler at the helm. Thanks to the previously passed BUILD Act, the new agency can fully unleash the power of development finance with a $60 billion portfolio for loans and risk insurance for investments that fight poverty in the developing world. 

AMERICA’S EXPORT BANK. Congress just passed a 7-year reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, strengthening this critical part of the U.S. economic toolkit that creates American jobs and boosts exports to overseas markets. Leading the charge were Senators Kevin Cramer and Kirsten Sinema, whom the USGLC was proud to host this year at statewide events in Fargo and Phoenix, respectively. 

DEBATE STAGE. Foreign policy watchers praised the quality of the questions focused on America’s role in the world – totaling about 22 minutes of discussion – in the PBS-Politico December Democratic debate. Here are some of the responses:

• Pete Buttigieg: "The world needs America but it can't be just any of them. It has to be one that is actually living up to values that make us who we are supporting peace… democracy… human rights… and stability around the world.
  
  
• Amy Klobuchar: “When it comes to foreign policy we need to keep our promises... we stand with our allies we stand with them firmly, we have a very clear and coherent foreign policy when it comes to human rights.”
  
  
• Elizabeth Warren: “We have the finest military on Earth… but we need to be an America that relies on our State Department, that relies on diplomacy, that relies on our economic power, and relies on working together with the rest of the world.”

NEW POWER PLAYERS. As the 2019 congressional session wrapped, more than a dozen critical foreign policy posts nominated by the White House were confirmed by the U.S. Senate:

• As the world watches whether North Korea conducts a new weapons test, the lead negotiator for the Korean Peninsula, Stephen Biegun, now holds the #2 spot at Foggy Bottom after being confirmed as America’s Deputy Secretary of State.
  
  
• The departing Deputy Secretary, John Sullivan, was also just confirmed as the new U.S. Ambassador to Russia, filling the critical post held by USGLC’s former Utah Co-Chair, Governor Jon Huntsman.
  
  
• Michelle Bekkering – who has helped drive the Administration’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative – was just confirmed as USAID Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and Environment.
   
• New Ambassadors: Kelley Eckels Currie was just confirmed as Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues, after serving at U.S. Mission to the UN. Morse Tan was confirmed as Ambassador at Large for Global Criminal Justice. Plus new ambassadors – all career Foreign Service officers – were confirmed for Albania, Georgia, Kuwait, Laos, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Oman. 

NOBEL LAUREATES. For their groundbreaking work in addressing ways to alleviate global poverty, MIT’s Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo and Harvard’s Michael Kremer were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize winners for economics. Fun fact: Banerjee and Duflo are the sixth married couple to jointly win a Nobel prize. See their December piece in Foreign Affairs on “How Poverty Ends.”