It's past time for Congress to properly fund the Department of State

 

The State Department Authorization Act, the law that provides the legal authority for the Department of State and other foreign affairs agencies is the most effective way for Congress to influence our nation’s foreign policy, which ensures the national security and prosperity of every American. Despite its importance to the lives of our citizens, a State Department Act has only passed Congress twice in the past two decades, once in 2002 and again in 2021. This means that for the better part of twenty years, Congress has passed up the opportunity to reorient our foreign policy, revitalize our diplomatic and development work force, and adequately represent the interests of their constituents in how the U.S. engages with the world. At the same time that it has abrogated its responsibility in this important area, Congress regularly passes annual legislation authorizing the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, further de-emphasizing the critical role diplomacy and development play in U.S. foreign and national security policy.

            Both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have signaled an interest in passing a State Department Authorization Act this year, and committee staffs are in the process of drafting legislative language for the 2023 bill.

            Failure to regularly pass this critical legislation harms our national security, weakens our ability to respond nimbly to new global threats and opportunities in a complex landscape, and handicaps the work of our U.S. diplomatic and development professionals by delaying or denying much needed reform and modernization efforts. It also contributes to the militarization of our foreign policy as more and more foreign policy decisions are made through the National Defense Authorization Act. This is an abdication of Congress’s critical job of representing the American people in the foreign policymaking process by providing regular and formal accountability and oversight by their duly elected officials, further divorcing the citizenry from critical questions of war, peace, and America’s role in the world.

            The last time Congress passed a State Department Authorization Act prior to 2021, Saddam Hussein was still in power in Iraq, the Euro was just coming into circulation, and Netflix was a mail order DVD service. The world is currently experiencing a moment of rapid, wide-ranging, and dangerous change that requires a robust and sustained response of all of the tools of our national security policy; defense, diplomacy, and development. We cannot afford to allow any of these tools to become obsolete.

            As a former official with 20 years of experience in the U.S. Army and 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, serving here at home and abroad, I implore the Congress to step up and do what we the people elected them to do. Pass the State Department Authorization Act without delay, this year and the years to come. That we’re already a month into the new fiscal year and yet again nothing has been done beyond introducing the bill in committee is a demonstration of why public confidence in the Congress is at an all time low.