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Dear Board of Directors,

As you saw, earlier this week the USGLC released – for the third time in the past decade – our “Report on Reports,” an analysis completed after each of the past presidential elections (2008, 2012, 2016) summarizing dozens of reports from a broad range of think tanks, NGOs, and foreign policy experts regarding America’s civilian tools and our national security.

In traditional USGLC fashion, the goal of the Report is to spotlight the common ground rather than the divisions – consensus areas about how to best move diplomacy and development forward to advance America’s interests. This year, our Report was particularly timely, not only with the swirling debate about “reforming” the State Department and USAID, but also with the Administration’s own “redesign” efforts underway.

We were pleased to have identified 7 clear points of agreement that highlight smart investments and improvements, and ideas to reduce redundancy and duplication. I hope you saw our distribution yesterday, but just in case you missed it, here’s the link to the Report: http://usglc.org/report-on-reports

Press Challenge
Unfortunately, just among us, the first press article from Foreign Policy Magazine aimed to create unnecessary tension with the Administration and to some degree, tension between military and non-military tools – of course, neither of which are even close to accurate reflections from the Report. We’ve addressed the key issues with their editorial team, though they are clearly selling “clicks”! Ultimately, this Report is about consensus, not conflict or divisions. Please correct the record if it comes up in any conversations.

Kudos
We’re confident this Report will be a well-timed contribution to the overall “Redesign” process as we continue to engage the Administration and Congress. A big thanks to my colleagues – especially our Policy shop, led by John Glenn, who did an incredible job analyzing more than 60 reports; Sidney Traynham and the Communications team who crafted the language and distribution; and of course Jason Gross, our producer-in-chief extraordinaire.

Next Up
This week and next are the UN General Assembly, where NSC Deputy Dina Powell will take the leadership role within the USG delegation and of course, watch for speeches by the President and appearances by UN Ambassador Haley and Secretary of State Tillerson. With CGI gone, Bloomberg and the Gates Foundation events will keep our issues front and center. Stay tuned.

Last but certainly not least, we never lose sight of the Appropriations battles with only 15 more days before the end of the fiscal year – and work on FY19 well on its way. Lindsay Plack and the Government Relations team are doing an incredible job leading the “Leading Globally Matters Locally” campaign with nearly 100 coalition members. Two items worth seeing:

* In the House, Appropriations leads Rogers and Lowey alongside HFAC leads Royce and Engel pressed Mick Mulvaney<https://lowey.house.gov/sites/lowey.house.gov/files/documents/2017-09-12%20OMB%20Reorg%20SFOPS%20HFAC%20Letter%20FINAL.pdf> to work with Congress, writing “Without Congressional assent, reform will not be sustainable over the long-term.” Significant with kudos to our teammates.
* Very useful NY Times Editorial Board piece<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/opinion/senators-lindsey-leahy-foreign-policy.html> praising Senators Graham and Leahy for their work on the Senate Appropriations Bill (there might have been an assist behind the scenes!)

I look forward to seeing you all at our October board meeting. Again, please hold the time beginning at 8:30am on Wednesday, October 4 through 1:00pm on Thursday, October 5. We’ll be at the St. Regis in Washington D.C. Please RSVP to Emily Benovitz at ebenovitz@usglc.org and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

And I hope you can join Monday’s Board call with USAID’s Jim Richardson. Here are the details:

USGLC Board of Directors Call
Monday, September 18
3:00-4:00 PM (Eastern)
Dial-In: (866) 576-7975
Access code: 398525#

Have a great weekend,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC