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The Weekly GAB Friday, June 16, 2017
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition | www.usglc.org
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USGLC in the News

THE HILL

The Stakes are too High to Cut Back American Diplomacy and Leadership

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Liz Schrayer, President, U.S. Global Leadership Coalition

This week more than 500 influential leaders from our "strange
bedfellows" coalition from around the country will come together
in our nation's capital for the USGLC's State Leaders
Summit. It will be my greatest privilege to join veterans who fought
in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside small business leaders and pastors
as they share their stories from Main Street with their elected
officials on why America's global leadership matters. But they
also will speak to the need for effective, accountable,
results-driven, and robust international affairs programs. They will
share the story of the decade-long bipartisan efforts to transform how
our nation delivers results for the American people.

DEVEX

Mapping Republican Views on Aid as Budget Discussions Kick Off in
Congress |

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Adva Saldinger

Some analysts and former officials expect to see Congress broadly
pitted against the administration in support of aid. Appropriators,
used to working with a president on a budget, find themselves at odds
with the recommendations; some 200 members of Congress have issued
statements opposing parts of the budget. Even among isolationists, the
staffer said, no strong champions have emerged for making cuts a
priority in budget negotiations. "There isn't a single
person I've talked to on Capitol Hill that sees this budget as
anything relevant to move forward on Capitol Hill," said Liz
Schrayer, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Global
Leadership Coalition.

NORTHERN NEVADA BUSINESS WEEKLY

UNR International Center Exec to Join Talks in D.C. to Stop Funding
Slash

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=2qYOATOvUEmmhx_FvCLgJA

Carina Black, the first executive director of the Northern Nevada
International Center at the University of Nevada, Reno, is joining
state leaders from across the country in Washington D.C. on June 13
and 14 to urge Nevada lawmakers on Capitol Hill to fully fund the
State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development in the
wake of the Administration's proposal to slash funding by 32 percent.
The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition is convening its 2017 State
Leaders Summit with more than 500 business, military, government,
non-profit, and faith leaders from across the country at a time of
growing global challenges from ISIS and Ebola to the refugee and
famine crises.

Who's in the News

POLITICO MAGAZINE
Memo to Congress: Don't Cut Foreign Aid |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=tyMHeKQFezVxzhWl0kJzSg

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Tim Kaine (D-VA)

President Donald Trump faces a world fraught with challenges to our
interests, not to mention the demands on our conscience posed by the
suffering of so many innocent people around the globe. He will need
every tool at his disposal to protect our interests and advance our
values. Unwise budget cuts to effective, desperately needed assistance
programs are a penny-wise and pound-foolish error that will shift even
more of the burden for stabilizing the world to our overburdened armed
services. Such cuts will make it harder to make America safer. They
will deprive the world of the full array of American political and
moral leadership when it has never been more needed. We urge the
administration and our colleagues in Congress not to make that
mistake.

MIAMI HERALD

Exclusive: White House Building Prosperity to Ensure Security in
Central America
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=cBGmfOtmWhIC2R0xViEJog

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Homeland Security John
Kelly, and Luis Alberto Moreno, Inter-American Development Bank

Consider the case of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, three
Central American countries that are known as the "Northern
Triangle"...Over the last ten years, almost three million people
from these three countries...have left their communities and headed
north...Almost twenty years ago, the South American nation of Colombia
faced a similar crisis...In that case, a bipartisan group from the
U.S. Congress decided to support a long-term plan - Plan
Colombia - to fortify the country's public institutions,
train and equip security forces, help fight narcotics traffickers, and
expand social programs. Contrary to what many initially predicted,
Plan Colombia worked...We believe a similar strategy can work in
Central America.

THE WASHINGTON POST
Five Myths About Famine

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Gayle Smith, President and CEO of the ONE Campaign, Former
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development

We are facing one of the worst humanitarian crises since World War II.
As the looming threat and tragic reality of famine spread across South
Sudan, northern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, 20 million people are in
urgent need of food and other assistance. But even with grim reports
from the United Nations' relief agencies and images of starving
children, there is widespread confusion about what famine is and what
we can do to help.

THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
USAID Can Take Transparency to the Next Level

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=7_TDJGpPU4ltz9RVOQ8beQ

George Ingram, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development

It is an anxious time. The development community is fraught over a
complex of issues, only a few of which are the 20 million people
facing starvation in Africa, no end in sight to the devastation of
Syria and the refugee exodus, the impact of the re-imposition of the
global gag rule, proposed budget cuts, and possible bureaucratic
reorganization. But let's focus for a moment on two positive
notes: the prospect that a highly competent and respected
administrator at the United States Agency for International
Development may soon be in place and the continued progress that
agency is poised to make on aid transparency.

Development & Diplomacy

THE WASHINGTON POST
Senators Sharply Question State Department Budget Cuts |

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Carol Morello and Anne Gearan

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to defend broad and deep
spending cuts in foreign aid on Tuesday before skeptical, often
caustic senators who warned that slashing humanitarian and development
funding would endanger national security. Although senators
acknowledged that some change in the State Department is overdue, the
budgetary approach Tillerson outlined was dismissed as penny-wise and
pound-foolish, an aphorism repeated several times in both committees.
Tillerson said that it is not fair to judge the effectiveness of
foreign aid by how much money is spent.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Will Cuts Hurt Diplomacy? Tillerson Tries to Ease Senate's
Worries |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=SOkhpbZ25wi37vWW0HQNEg

Gardiner Harris

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson was subjected to a full day of
rough, bipartisan criticism on Tuesday as senators from both parties
denounced the Trump administration's plans to cut the State
Department's budget by about 30 percent. Senators repeatedly
asked whether issues such as the promotion of human rights, the
protection of democracy, the campaign against human trafficking or
efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons were priorities for the
administration.

KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION
What Could U.S. Budget Cuts Mean for Global Health? |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=Mt1K8eSCOinlMkdUTHdKmw

Jennifer Kates, Adam Wexler, Josh Michaud, and John Stover

President Trump's FY 18 budget request to Congress includes
unprecedented cuts to global health. If enacted, they would total
approximately $2.5 billion and bring funding below FY 08 levels.
Still, the President's budget is just the first step in a longer
process where Congress now takes center stage. We modeled three budget
scenarios the Administration's proposed cuts as well as two more
modest decreases in countries that receive U.S. global health
assistance for HIV, TB, family planning, and maternal, newborn, and
child health. Based on our models, the potential health impacts of
these one-year cuts is significant across all three budget scenarios.

DEVEX

Nominee for USAID Administrator Mark Green Sails Through Senate
Hearing |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=a4GOt_MgY-lW1ewqqwEhcA

Michael Igoe

Former Ambassador Mark Green, President Donald Trump's nominee
to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, appeared before
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday for his nomination
hearing. Green received a warm welcome from both Republican and
Democratic lawmakers, who repeatedly praised his qualifications,
bipartisan outlook, and long track record of development leadership.
In a rare move, House Speaker Paul Ryan ventured to the U.S. Senate
chamber to offer introductory remarks on behalf of Green, whom he
called, "a good, close, old friend" and the agency
he's set to lead, "a very important agency at a very
important time."

CBS NEWS
Pence, Tillerson, Kelly Meet With Central American Leaders in Miami

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Top Trump administration officials are affirming America's commitment
to advancing Central America's economic prosperity -- despite a
proposed budget that would cut U.S. efforts in the region by between
30 - 40 percent. "Your success is our success," Vice President Pence
told Central American leaders at a conference in Miami Thursday, which
also included Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security
Secretary John Kelly. Tillerson echoed those sentiments, and said that
what happens in the Northern Triangle directly impacts the security
and economic interests of the U.S., and the region on the whole.

Politics & Foreign Policy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
About 4,000 More US Troops to Go to Afghanistan |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=CDjxhsejrncAauzJmwxDYQ

Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns

The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to
Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to
break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S.
commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American
manpower under Donald Trump's young presidency. The decision by
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week,
the official said. It follows Trump's move to give Mattis the
authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the
top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn't have enough
forces to help Afghanistan's army against a resurgent Taliban
insurgency.

FOREIGN POLICY

Trump Snubs State, Will Partially Reverse Obama's Cuba Policy |

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Robbie Gramer

President Donald Trump is expected to announce a new Cuba policy
during his visit to Miami on Friday, rolling back much of his
predecessor's progress toward rapprochement with Havana, despite
an interagency review that recommended keeping the current approach in
place. Trump's Cuba policy offers a glimpse into the chaotic
policymaking process inside the administration, where standard
interagency processes are often cast aside and Trump and his close
coterie of White House advisors run major foreign policy decisions out
of the White House with little input from the State Department.

CBS NEWS

Trump Sells Qatar $12 Billion of U.S. Weapons Days After Accusing it
of Funding Terrorism |

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=DuwEqJT60pMLDSSFFtSzOA

Margaret Brennan and Kylie Atwood

While President Trump berates Qatar for sponsoring terrorism at the
highest levels, he is simultaneously authorizing the country to
purchase over $21 billion of U.S. weapons. One portion of that deal --
$12 billion for 36 F-15QA fighter jets -- was inked on Wednesday in
Washington, D.C., when Qatar's Defense Minister met with U.S. Defense
Secretary James Mattis. The State Department describes this sale as
fermenting U.S. efforts to "strengthen the security and defense
architecture of the region." They point out that it does not directly
conflict with the current regional dispute as it will take years to
complete and fill the sale in full.


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