Foreign Aid: Presidential Priorities and Congressional Responses

• In Event: Politics and Aid Effectiveness

Abstract

U.S foreign aid is a tool of both presidential and congressional foreign policy. Presidents propose foreign aid budgets, but Congress has the power of the purse and determines the available funding. I argue that Congress adjusts foreign aid funding levels to reflect Congressional foreign policy priorities. Benchmarking outcomes against requests for foreign aid funding is not straightforward, given the differences in categories and framing used by each branch (Carcelli 2018). This paper draws on original data, combined with a novel typology of foreign aid accounts, that enables comparability between what the president requests and what Congress grants. I examine the composition of presidential budget requests for foreign aid (1995-2023) and compare foreign aid and foreign policy priorities across four administrations. I also analyze how Congress adjusts presidential funding requests and how Congressional-executive dynamics over the foreign aid budget shape foreign policy priorities and the foreign policy agenda.

Author

• Ashley Wright, University of Oxford