Senators Defend Foreign Aid in Fresh Pitch Against Trump's Cuts
- Group says USAID should get a seat on White House council
- Bipartisan task force makes case for continued ‘soft power’
Workers unload medical supplies to fight the Ebola epidemic from a USAID cargo flight on Aug. 24, 2014, in Harbel, Liberia.
Photographer: John Moore/Getty ImagesA bipartisan task force of U.S. senators and former diplomats is pushing back against the Trump administration’s effort to cut funding for foreign aid and development, urging instead that the strategy for overseas assistance should be revamped.
Far from reducing the role of such “soft power” diplomacy, the task force headed by Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire proposed giving the U.S. Agency for International Development a seat on the White House’s National Security Council. In a report to be released on Monday, the group also calls for a national diplomacy and development strategy to set priorities for spending.