December 18, 2009
Dear Senator or Representative:
Thank you for your contribution to helping prevent and mitigate deadly conflict. As a member of the State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, you have helped increase and strengthen resources available to civilian agencies through the FY010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which Congress recently approved as part of an omnibus appropriations bill.
In particular, we want to thank you for including in the bill a new $50 million Complex Crises Fund to help the State Department and USAID prevent and respond to unforeseen and emerging crises. The ability of civilian agencies to respond to and help avert crises in real time has been severely hampered by a lack of flexible funds. The creation of the Complex Crises Fund is extremely important for increasing civilian agency capacities to help de-escalate violence and avoid costly military interventions.
We also thank you for including in the bill funding for 700 new Foreign Service Officers for the State Department and 300 for USAID, as well as $120 million for the Civilian Stabilization Initiative to continue building up the Civilian Response Corps (CRC). We welcome language in the bill calling for more coherent joint budgeting between State and USAID for the CRC.
While we were disappointed that the total amount of flexible funding available to State and USAID appears lower than the administration’s original request, we recognize the hard work involved in reaching consensus on the bill and the important steps you have taken to begin providing more capacities and flexibility to civilian agencies to help prevent and mitigate crises. As you know, increasing these capacities is critical for strengthening the role that our civilian agencies play in US foreign policy, as urged by both Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton, and correcting the current gross imbalance in authorities and funding between U.S. military and civilian agencies.
Finally, we thank you for meeting estimated needs for contributions to international organizations and UN peacekeeping missions. US support for multilateral cooperation to help prevent and resolve crises is more cost-effective than unilateral efforts and demonstrates that such global problems require global solutions.
Again, thank you for strengthening US and international capacities to help prevent and mitigate deadly conflict through the FY 2010 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. We look forward to working with you to continue this effort in the FY 2011 appropriations process.
Sincerely,
Bridget Moix
Legislative Secretary
