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A top House Democrat argued Thursday that "even a fraction" of President Trump's proposed spending cuts would be "an absolute disaster" for the State Department.

"[T]he White House wants to cut nearly one-third of the international affairs budget next year," New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat, said Thursday morning. "That obviously would be a disaster. In fact, slashing our international engagement by even a fraction of that, at a time when we're facing serious challenges around the world, would be an absolute disaster."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson disagrees, and has said recent State Department budgets have run at "historically high" and unsustainable levels. But Engel countered that rising threats around the world make this year a uniquely bad time to cut diplomatic spending, and urged lawmakers to assert their congressional power under the Constitution.

"Congress, as we all say many times, is a co-equal branch of government, and, according to the Constitution, we appropriate funds or you appropriate funds," he told a House Appropriations subcommittee panel. "We don't just have to roll over because any White House says so. This year, we're going to have to put that idea to the test."

Trump asked Congress to cut diplomatic funding by nearly one-third, a $10 billion reduction that would lower spending to levels below George W. Bush's budget requests at the end of his administration.

"What the President is asking the State Department to do is, I think, reflective of a couple of expectations," Tillerson said while traveling in Japan. "One is that as time goes by, there will be fewer military conflicts that the U.S. will be directly engaged in; and second, that as we become more effective in our aid programs, that we will also be attracting resources from other countries, allies, and other sources as well to contribute in our development aid and our disaster assistance."

Engel accused the Trump team of indulging an "isolationist" outlook.

"History has shown us what we can get by retreating into a defensive, isolationist crouch," he said. "If we aren't carrying the mantle of global leadership, make no mistake, someone else will pick it up, and we may not like what we see. Don't want Russia picking it up, don't want China picking it up, don't want any of these countries that don't share our values picking it up, and they will if we retreat."

Also from the Washington Examiner

Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., said Friday he supports the Trump administration's tougher new policy against North Korea, and said using pre-emptive military force could end up alleviating some of the threat posed by the hostile country.

Duffy said on CNN that North Korea's continued development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles might not be a threat to the United States at the moment, but given a longer leash the regime might end up trying to kill Americans on American soil.

"There's a real threat from North Korea," Duffy said. "Not only do they have nuclear weapons, but they're advancing their ballistic missiles technology and if they advance it further, they can be a real threat to Europe and, if we take

03/17/17 8:08 AM

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Top House Democrat: Any State Department cuts 'an absolute disaster' - Washington Examiner