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Hunter,

A quick update with a lot to share from the week. The USGLC hosted nearly 550 state leaders at our State Leaders Summit and it was citizen advocacy at its best. Veterans, business, and faith leaders joined with mayors and state-wide elected officials in over 200 meetings on Capitol Hill, making the case to lawmakers on why leading globally matters locally.

Check out the 2-minute recap video featuring cameos from the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Paul Selva, and Secretary Madeleine Albright:

http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=zZ8C3bVVh4LHpBZMbQLa5A

Lots more to share below including the latest on the budget from Capitol Hill, foreign policy tidbits, and highlights from the Summit - including Democratic Senator Chris Coons' compliment to the Trump administration.

Best,

Liz
Liz Schrayer, USGLC

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THE GLOBAL GAB: The State Leaders Summit Edition
June 23, 2018

TOP GENERAL. Our nation's second highest-ranking military leader in the country, General Paul Selva - the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - made the case before our state leaders headed to Capitol Hill:

* On America's role in world: "Our global leadership is important for many reasons, and not the least of which is that diplomacy and development are a hell of a lot cheaper than defense."

* Here's the why: "It's because the part of the business [that the military does] is destructive. If you have to call on me for diplomatic failure, I'm gonna make the problem worse before I make it better."

* The "ROI": "Dollar for dollar... diplomacy and development... are immensely more effective than having to deploy soldiers, sailors, airmen, or marines to a crisis where we have to fix a problem."

BUDGET ACTION. The 200+ Summit meetings on Capitol Hill could not have come at a more critical moment. This week, House and Senate appropriators each passed their State-Foreign Operations bills in
committee - and we saw strong funding levels with the House maintaining current levels and the Senate including a $400 million increase. This all comes after the Administration proposed cutting the International Affairs Budget by a third for the second year in a row. For more details, see our Budget Center. http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=5VbqD3v0JI8TvtBbz9jF7w

RAQQA RUBBLE. USAID Chief Mark Green told our Summit of the horrific destruction he saw in Syria: "I've seen a lot of tough places in the world - I don't know that I've ever seen the scale of destruction that I saw in Raqqa. When General Votel and I were driving together, we got to an intersection... and as far as the eye can see is devastation."

COONS COMPLIMENT. In a show of bipartisanship with Ray Washburne, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) chief, the Delaware Senator, Chris Coons (D-DE), said the proposal for a new development finance institution "has real promise to be the most significant initiative of the Trump administration in the developing world... to really tackle what's left of extreme poverty and to create export markets and opportunities for U.S. companies."

CONGRESSIONAL SHOUTOUT. Leading voices from Capitol Hill took the Summit stage to speak out about the importance of development and diplomacy - hats off to Senate champion Todd Young (R-IN) and
Representatives Tim Ryan (D-OH), John Curtis (R-UT), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), and Brad Schneider (D-IL).

MAYORS MATTER. The USGLC paid tribute to three mayors at this year's summit with our annual global leadership award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to advancing the work of our coalition: Incoming U.S. Conference of Mayors President Steve Benjamin (Columbia, SC), Mayor Roy Buol (Dubuque, Iowa), and Mayor Rita Sanders (Bellevue, Nebraska).

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Seeing Governors Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Howard Dean (D-VT) sitting side-by-side on the Summit stage for our closing plenary was a powerful reminder of the bipartisan appeal of USGLC's message and work - despite their differing political punditry. A few fun takeaways:

* Chris Christie: "Listen, I ran for president, Governor Dean ran for president... People would ask me... all the time... about what I think of President Trump, and I'd say, 'Well, he's fine by me, although I was my first choice.'"

* Howard Dean: "I want to see somebody of a different generation than ours. I think we're done, and we should be done, we should get the hell out of the way... do some teaching... and let them run the world, 'cause it's their world and I think we've had a great run and that's enough."

* And the closer from Christie: "If I didn't have friends who were Democrats, I would've been eating alone five nights a week in New Jersey."

PEPFAR@15. Watch for a special edition of the GLOBAL GAB with highlights from the Summit's tribute to President George W. Bush, Senator Tom Daschle, and all the champions in Congress, marking 15 years of America's signature HIV and AIDS relief program.

BREAKING NEWS. In dozens of stories around the country from Dubuque to Des Moines and Columbus to Kentucky, local veterans and business leaders made headlines on why they traveled to Washington to defend America's budget for diplomacy and global development.
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=CcvS0XyAuqBY1IwmCO4BFg
http://action.usglc.org/site/R?i=lTnfi-qchEtPyOcLqEObwA

MADAM SECRETARY. Secretary Madeleine Albright reminded us all why America's role in the world still matters: "There's nothing about the word 'indispensable' that says 'alone.' It just says we need to be engaged... because it's good for our people and it's obviously good for the world."


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