Proposed Budget Cuts Could Eviscerate the State Department

The Interpreter reports that recent proposed budget cuts for the State Department would seriously set back its operations. It has only barely recovered from the cuts imposed by the Trump administration. It says:

The US foreign service suffered steep budget cuts, a hiring freeze, and an exodus of career professionals throughout the Trump administration. The State Department has spent recent years making up for lost ground. For example, after losing ten per cent of its workforce under Trump, the foreign service has since rebounded to its former level. A recent Congressional Research Service report has illustrated that funding under Biden has also increased. Though Congress has not met the Biden administration’s requests dollar for dollar, State Department funding today far exceeds Trump-era levels.

“Right-sizing” the State Department budget is an ongoing problem. Lawmakers and commentators have remarked for decades that the US foreign service is underfunded. But this is also what makes a potential second Trump term all the more worrying ­– both for US diplomats and for America’s partners – if his first term record and recent comments about purging the “deep state” are anything to go by.