WASHINGTON—Max Primorac, a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, released a statement today praising the draft FY 2025 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) Appropriations Act recently approved by the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations.
“The FY25 SFOPS appropriations bill is one of the most conservative foreign aid packages in years. It makes deep cuts to a bloated aid industry, ends support to United Nations agencies, blocks funding for climate alarmism, provides strong pro-Life protections, prohibits funding to radical global NGOs, and rewards our allies in Israel and Taiwan," said Primorac. "Major conservative victories in the package align with long-held positions of Heritage and our Project 2025 partners to end foreign aid as an international entitlement program for the far Left. Conservatives should not fold once again to the Left-wing, billion-dollar aid industrial complex. It is past time to stop taxpayer money from financing these self-serving global elites.”
Primorac, a former acting chief operating officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary of State, praised the bill after State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) worked to slash 11% from America’s foreign aid budget.
As a result, taxpayers will save $7.6 billion while defunding programs that erode American sovereignty, promote transgenderism and abortion, and finance a climate agenda that enriches and empowers the Chinese Communist Party.
The full U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation this week. Heritage Action, the grassroots advocacy group affiliated with The Heritage Foundation, will encourage lawmakers to vote yes.
If passed by the House, it will move to the U.S. Senate where Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), top Republican on the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee will be responsible for maintaining its integrity.
BACKGROUND:
Heritage has long called on Congress to restore balance and nonpartisanship within America’s foreign aid apparatus which they claim has been overtaken by political interests from one side of the spectrum.
Federal Elections Commission data shows that during the 2019-2020 election cycle 93% of all political contributions from State Department employees and 96% from USAID employees went to Democratic Party candidates or political action committees.
The organization argues that such disparity undermines democracy as public institutions should serve an administration elected by all people irrespective of their employees’ political affiliations.
Though restoring true political balance within foreign policy apparatus may take time Congress can take steps now towards nonpartisanship according to The Heritage Foundation.
