	Most Recent Developments

On February 14, 2007, Congress completed work on the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill and the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations bill as part of the FY2007 Continuing Resolution ( H.J.Res. 109-289 as amended by P.L. 110-5 ). For the 2 nd session of the 109 th Congress, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are maintaining the same jurisdiction structure as last year—House Foreign Operations and Senate State/Foreign Operations. Foreign Operations Overview

Foreign Operations, the larger of the two components with a request of $23.69 billion for FY2007, is the primary legislative vehicle through which Congress reviews and votes on the U.S. foreign assistance budget and influences major aspects of executive branch foreign policy-making generally. State Department/Broadcasting Overview

Budgets for the Department of State, including embassy construction, embassy security, and public diplomacy, were within the State Department and related programs title of the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce (SSJC) appropriations in the House and the State, Foreign Operations measure in the Senate. Substantial supplementals of $7.5 billion, $21.2 billion, and $2.5 billion, respectively, for assistance to the front line states in the war on terrorism and Afghanistan and Iraq reconstruction, pushed spending upward. And, as noted above, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, several emergency supplemental appropriations raised State Department funding levels to an all-time high by FY2004. Nevertheless, the size of the reduction compared with the executive request approved in House and Senate budget resolutions creates a challenging budget picture for appropriation subcommittees with jurisdiction over Foreign Operations and State Department/Broadcasting programs. Foreign Operations Request Overview

The 14.3% increase over regular FY2006 appropriations proposed for Foreign Operations was one of the largest additions in the President's request for discretionary spending in FY2007. The bill provided $32.6 billion in international affairs spending, of which $9.56 billion was for State Department Operations, diplomacy and broadcasting, and $23.0 billion for foreign assistance programs. The final legislation ( P.L.
The annual Foreign Operations appropriations bill in the House, and the State, Foreign Operations measure in the Senate are the primary legislative vehicles through which Congress reviews the U.S. international affairs budgets and influences executive branch foreign policy making generally. They contain the largest shares—the House bill, about two-thirds; the Senate bill, about 97%—of total U.S. international affairs spending.
Due to subcommittee structural differences between the House and Senate in the 109th Congress, the House Appropriations Committee considered the Foreign Operations request separate from the State Department budget, with the latter falling under the jurisdiction of the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce (SSJC) Subcommittee. The Senate Appropriations Committee, however, combined Foreign Operations and State Department funding requests.
Funding for Foreign Operations and State Department/Broadcasting programs has been rising for six consecutive years, and amounts approved in FY2004 reached an unprecedented level compared with the past 40 years. Emergency supplementals enacted since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to assist the front line states in the war on terrorism, Afghanistan and Iraq reconstruction, and for State Department operations and security upgrades have pushed spending upward.
Major issues confronting the 110th Congress in considering the Foreign Operations and State Department/Broadcasting appropriations request for FY2007 included:
The overall size of the Foreign Operations request—a 14.4% increase over regular FY2006 Foreign Operations funds; Proposed cuts in spending on core bilateral development assistance and programs in Latin America; A 71% increase in appropriations for the Millennium Challenge Account; and Secretary Rice's Transformational Diplomacy initiative for the State Department.
On February 14, 2007, Congress completed work on the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill and the Science, State, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations bill as part of the FY2007 Continuing Resolution (H.J.Res. 20/ P.L. 109-289 as amended by P.L. 110-5). The bill provided $32.6 billion in international affairs spending, of which $9.56 billion was for State Department Operations, diplomacy and broadcasting, and $23.0 billion for foreign assistance programs. This is the final update of this report.