Budget 2011: New Money, Old Ways in the State Department Budget
Helle Dale /
Increasing spending on the State Department and international affairs while freezing discretionary domestic spending is probably not likely to endear President Obama further to constituencies on either side of the Congressional aisle. Yet, the State Department is one of the few winners in President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request, continuing a five year commitment made last year to increase capacity at Foggy Bottom.
The way the funding request is structured tells you much about the President’s priorities in foreign policy, which hold fairly closely to traditional Democratic priorities. It certainly does not reflect the big bold transformations that have been held out as the premise for the forthcoming Quadrennial Development and Diplomacy Review.