PUBLIC POLICY UPDATE Dec.

16, 2011 WASHINGTON UPDATE Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations Wrapping Up When we went to press Friday afternoon, the House had passed H.R. 2055, the megabus conference agreement on the nine remaining appropriations bills including State, Foreign Operations. The vote was 296-121. The expectation is that the Senate will pass the megabus sometime on Saturday, after which the bill would go to the president and be signed into law, finally wrapping up the FY2012 appropriations process. Since the current stopgap funding resolution expires at midnight tonight, the House also passed two short-term continuing resolutions, extending funding for one day and one week, respectively, to provide whatever continued funding was necessary to keep the government running until the megabus can be enrolled and sent to the president. The text of the State, Foreign Operations (SFOps) division of the conference agreement (H.R. 2055) was identical to the text released early Thursday morning by House Republicans (H.R. 3671) in their bid to force Senate Democratic leadership to stop blocking consideration of the conference report. A separate resolution containing an across-the-board rescission of 1.83% from all accounts was also passed by the House but was not expected to pass the Senate, so would not affect final FY2012 funding levels. InterActions budget spreadsheet with the final FY2012 funding levels is available on our website here. Generally speaking, poverty-focused international development and humanitarian assistance accounts did well! They did so in part because the final bill included $11.2 billion in Overseas Contingency Operation funding, affectionately known as OCO. This compares to $8.7 billion in OCO in the Senate bill and $7.6 billion in the House bill. Though it comes from the same U.S. treasury, OCO funding was specifically exempted from counting toward the spending caps set by the debt deal reached back in July, so it provided some extra wiggle room as appropriators tried to fit Defense, Homeland Security, Military Construction, Veterans, and SFOps spending under the cap on security spending. Extra room was needed thanks to an agreement in the last few weeks to increase the Defense allocation by $5 billion. The overall allocation for the SFOps bill, including OCO, ended up at $53.3 billion, almost exactly what the Senate had allocated (in total, including OCO) and $6.1 billion over the House allocation. FY2012 State, Foreign Operations funding ($, billions) Regular funding OCO funding Total House subcommittee 39.6 47.2 7.6 bill Senate bill 53.343 44.64 8.703 Conference 53.300 42.1 11.2 agreement 1

Most poverty-focused accounts ended up 1-4% under the Senate-proposed levels, and significantly above House levels. USAID Operating Expenses, for example, will get $1.3473 billion, 1% ($9.7 million) under the Senate level of $1.357 billion, and 37% ($362 million) over the House level of $985.2 million. The administrations request for this account was $1.5 billion. Overall global health funding did especially well, with a bump up over both House and Senate levels, to $8.2 billion, about 15% over the House and 3% over the Senate (though not as high as the administrations request, which was $8.7 billion). Migration and Refugee Assistance also did well, ending up 4% over the Senate level and 25% over the House, at $1.9 billion. The Millennium Challenge Corporation was flat-funded at FY11s level of $898.2 million, as both House and Senate had recommended. The MCC did get a requested increase in the cap on their administrative expenses, from $95 to $105 million. In January, once we have had time to go through the conference reports Statement of Managers more thoroughly, we hope to present additional analysis and a view of the bill from a longer-term perspective. Congress sends FY2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to president This week, a conferenced National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed by both the House and the Senate, sending the bill to the president for his signature. Of note: The conference bill extends the Commanders Emergency Response Program (CERP) in Afghanistan through FY2012 at $400 million a level lower than previous years authorizations. Congress significantly decreased funding in CERP because funds traditionally appropriated for CERP are now being divided between it and a relatively new Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund (AIF). The AIF was created last year to support highpriority, large-scale infrastructure projects in support of the civil-military campaign in Afghanistan. The conference agreement authorizes $400 million for the AIF in FY2012. In May, the House authorized funding for FY2012 for section 1206 programs that seek to build the capacity of foreign military forces, increasing the authorization level from $350 million to $400 million. However, the Senate version of the NDAA stipulated that no more than $100 million of funding under 1206 may be obligated and expended until the Secretaries of State and Defense submitted a report to Congress. In the conference agreement, annual funding for 1206 programs was kept at its current level: $350 million. The conference bill provides DoD with the authority to provide logistic support, supplies, and services for foreign forces participating in operations to mitigate and eliminate the threat posed by the Lords Resistance Army pursuant to the Lords Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. The NDAA limits the amount of funding used for this purpose to $35 million in each fiscal year. The conference NDAA established a Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF) as a new account on the books of the Treasury. The money in the GSCF can be available to either the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense to provide assistance to enhance the capabilities of a foreign countrys military forces and counterterrorism operations in order to strengthen that countrys security interest consistent with U.S. foreign policy interests and to provide assistance for the justice sector and rule of law programs. Other key highlights include: 1. The conference NDAA gives the Secretary of State the power in concurrence with the Secretary of Defense to designate the countries to receive assistance under the GSCF. 2

2. The bill limits the amount available to State and DoD for assistance under the GSCF to $350 million in FY2012 and $300 million in following years. 3. The bill specifies that the States contribution to any activity under the purpose of the GSCF shall not be less than 20 percent of the total and DoDs contribution no more than 80 percent. 4. The bill also makes provision of the transfer of funds to another agency or account determined most appropriate to facilitate the provision of assistance authorized by the GSCF. 5. The NDAA specifies that in FY2012 assistance under the GSCF may be provided to: enhance the capacity of the national military and security forces of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya and those of the national military forces participating in the African Union Mission in Somalia AMISOM to conduct counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda affiliates and al Shabaab; and to enhance the ability of Yemeni counter terrorism forces to conduct actions against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its affiliates.

ARTICLES AND REPORTS BBC Dec. 16: DR Congo election: Joseph Kabila confirmed as winner The Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared incumbent Joseph Kabila winner of the recent presidential election with almost 49 percent of the vote amid concerns by U.S., European Union, and opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo that the vote was not free and fair. Devex Dec. 16: UN Development at a crossroads This article traces the history of United Nations (UN) development organizations and their various iterations throughout the 20th century. It argues that as the global landscape continues to change dramatically in the 21st century, both the UN and Official Development Assistance will need to adapt to stay relevant. Of special note to the InterAction community, the article states that 70 percent of contributions to U.S.-based international NGOs come are privately funded. Devex: Dec. 16: MCC OKs New Cape Verde Program, Names Countries Eligible for Compacts At the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) quarterly board meeting this week, Cape Verde secured a $66.2 million MCC compact while El Salvador and Benin, both past recipients of MCC compacts, qualified as eligible to apply for future compacts. Moreover, Nepal and Honduras were selected as eligible for new MCC threshold programs. New York Times: Dec. 15: U.S. Marks End to 9-Year War, Leaving an Uncertain Iraq This article assesses the implications of the official end U.S. military operations in Iraq and attempts to place it in historical and geopolitical context. It also documents the multitude of problems that Iraqis must grapple with in the aftermath of U.S. direct military involvement in their country.

Disclaimer: Articles linked in the Update are intended to provide a dashboard view of newsworthy and topical issues from popular news outlets that will be of interest to readers of the Update. The 3

articles are an information sharing vehicle rather than an advocacy tool. They are in no way representative of the views of InterAction or the U.S. NGO community as a whole.