Trump admin wants to slash funding for diplomacy and foreign aid.
Washington (CNN)The Trump administration is proposing sharp cuts to the budget for international diplomacy and aid in its 2019 funding request to Congress -- though questions were raised when the White House and State Department appeared to ask for different amounts of funding with very little explanation.
In White House documents and a letter Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wrote to lawmakers, the administration requests $37.8 billion for fiscal year 2019 for the State Department and Agency for International Development, a cut of 32% from 2017 levels.
In a separate statement issued by the State Department in Tillerson's name, the request is for $39.3 billion, a 29% cut. A State Department official said the agency was submitting a late-breaking addendum to the budget "that includes an additional $1.5 billion dollars in the topline for a limited set of administration priorities."
The official was unable to explain the discrepancy with the White House figure, or what the limited set of priorities are.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/12/politics/trump-budget-state-department-aid-cut/index.html