Arizona leaders make plea for foreign aid

WASHINGTON – Local leaders of all sorts are a common sight on Capitol Hill — often decked out in button-ups or T-shirts to carry a message about a program or cause. But this week local officials — including 18 Arizonans — are working the hallways of Congress for an unusual cause: funding for foreign affairs.

It is often a maligned and poorly understood part of the massive federal budget, and recently the focus of criticism from congressional Republicans.

But Paul G. Johnson, president of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, and Katie Mabardy, Arizona's executive director for Project C.U.R.E., an international medical charity, said Tuesday they were enthused to make the case for funding for diplomacy and international aid. They are among several hundred leaders from 27 states who are in Washington to attend the annual state leaders summit of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

"We need a balanced approach to U.S. foreign policy," Johnson said, citing the importance of maintaining a strong military. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy.

Johnson, an attorney with Jennings Strouss law firm, said the work of the State Department in particular helps promote foreign trade. Arizona exported $21.1 billion in goods and services last year, and trade supported 93,354 Arizona jobs in 2014.

Mabardy's group collects unused medical supplies that would otherwise be thrown out and delivers them to countries in need. The Arizona operation collected $14 million worth of medical supplies last year, Mabardy said.

In pressing for foreign aid, she subscribes to a saying she learned at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, where she was a student of Johnson's:

"Borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers," she recounted. "I really believe in that."

Johnson said he wants to make sure the small portion of the budget that goes to international relations is not forgotten. Foreign affairs funding makes up just 1 percent of the federal budget even though polls consistently show the public believes the amount is far greater.

"I think the country gets a lot of bang for that 1 percent," he said.

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2016 funding bill for the State Department and foreign operations that provides $47.8 billion, which is $1.4 billion less than the current fiscal year and $6.1 billion below President Barack Obama's budget request.

It focuses on national security and calls for cuts in foreign aid, no U.S. funding for the International Monetary Fund, and the elimination of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, decried the bill's "deep cuts to our engagement overseas."

"They leave us vulnerable to the spread of extremist ideology, substantially weaken our standing in the world, and make it more difficult to achieve our goals on the global stage," Lowey said.

Johnson said the extended U.S. involvement in wars and other crises around the world contributes to a desire to pull back from international involvement.

"I understand the reaction," Johnson said. "But eventually a lack of engagement leads to more military activity."

Mabardy added, "We just don't have a choice to not engage."

Contact Bill Theobald atwtheobal@gannett.com or follow on Twitter @BillTheobald.