The new budget book will be delivered to politicians all around DC and the country. (Getty Images | Bill Clark)
Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama released his budget requests for 2016. Essentially, the President’s budget is a long letter to Congress highlighting the Administration’s biggest priorities and goals for 2016. This massive, wordy, and technical document spells out exactly how Obama and his Administration would propose spending $4 trillion.
President Obama wrote, “With a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production, we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth. It’s now up to us to choose what kind of country we want to be over the next 15 years, and for decades to come.” As a global citizen and a proud American, I sure hope that my country continues to work to see the end of extreme poverty by 2030.
Just in case you don’t want to read all 1000 pages, here is a recap of some areas that are important to global citizens:
Health
President Obama’s budget includes some strong increases in funding for global health programs. Specifically, the budget provides resources to support the Global Health Security Agenda, creates a new Impact Fund for targeted global HIV/AIDS efforts, and increases funding for domestic preparedness efforts to more effectively and efficiently respond to potential future outbreaks here at home. This will be really important for addressing future outbreaks.
The 2016 budget requests $235 million to support childhood immunization in the world’s poorest countries through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The proposed funding is part of the historic $1 billion commitment over fiscal years 2015-2018 announced by USAID Administrator Raj Shah at the Alliance’s pledging conference in Berlin last month. The US contribution – subject to Congressional approval – will support Gavi’s efforts to help immunize 300 million children by 2020, saving up to 6 million lives and unlocking $80 billion-$100 billion in economic benefits.
The Administration’s fiscal year 2016 budget request also includes an increase to $770 million for maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) programs. USAID’s in-country MNCH programs are really vital to ensuring that children can survive and thrive!
Since the outbreak of Ebola, the United States has mounted a Government-wide response to contain and eliminate the epidemic at its source, while also taking prudent measures to protect the American people. Emergency funding appropriated in 2014, in response to the President’s proposal, will mitigate the epidemic in West Africa, enhance domestic preparedness, speed the procurement and testing of new vaccines and therapeutics, as well as accelerate the Global Health Security Agenda. These activities will combat the spread of Ebola and will help reduce the potential for future outbreaks of infectious diseases that could follow a similarly devastating, costly, and destabilizing trajectory. The US budget continues to invest in these critical programs to strengthen the nation’s preparedness capabilities.
Education
The piece of the President’s budget that most excited me was the language around increasing access to education globally! The 2016 budget calls for $600m for Basic Education, which is an increase from the previous year. The President’s budget also requests $70m for Global Partnership for Education (GPE). This is truly incredible as President Obama’s budget request for Global Partnership for Education was only $25m for 2015!
Food
President Obama’s budget calls for $978 million for the Feed the Future initiative in support of food security and agriculture programs to reduce hunger, extreme poverty, and malnutrition. The request also builds on the President’s commitment to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and promotes resilience among populations vulnerable to recurrent food crises. These programs work. For example, in FY 2013, Feed the Future reached nearly seven million smallholder farmers with new technologies.
In addition, President Obama’s budget will help make food aid from the United States more efficient and effective. The request makes food aid more flexible by allowing our government to use up to 25 percent of Food for Peace resources for cash-based food assistance for emergencies, valued at $350 million. Emergency food needs have been growing globally. This new approach will allow USAID to provide more timely and cost effective emergency food aid, improving program performance and impact. It is estimated that this additional flexibility will enable USAID to reach approximately 2 million more people in need annually with the same level of resources!
Overall, I’m thrilled to see President Obama propose strong funding increases for key programs that are working to end extreme poverty. But, this is just the beginning. In the next few weeks, Members of Congress will be looking over the President’s requests and determining their key priorities for 2016. We need to be sure that Congress understands the significance of programs like Global Partnership for Education; can you help us?
Take action now by signing the petition supporting Global Partnership for Education.
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Judith Rowland