CRS Division abbreviation: "FDT" = Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. For the most controversial FY2001 Foreign Operations issue - internationalfamily planning - Congress increased spending to $425 million. Lawmakers,however, restricted the obligation of funds until after February 15, 2001. OnJanuary 22, 2001, two days after taking office, President George W. Bush issued aMemorandum to the USAID Administrator directing him to "reinstate in full all ofthe requirements of the Mexico City Policy in effect on January 19, 1993." Aseparate statement from the President's press secretary stated that President Bushwas "committed to maintaining the $425 million funding level" for populationassistance "because he knows that one of the best ways to prevent abortion is byproviding quality voluntary family planning services." On February 15, 2001,USAID released specific policy and contract guidelines to implement the President'sdirective. These guidelines were re-issued by the White House on March 28 in orderto block an early congressional vote to overturn the Mexico City restrictions. Previously, on November 6, 2000, President Clinton signed into law a $14.9 billion Foreign Operations Appropriations for FY2001 ( P.L. 106-429 ; H.R. 4811 ). The spending measure includes both regular FY2001requested programs as well as selected FY2000 supplemental funding proposals thatCongress had rejected earlier in the year. The enacted legislation falls about $550million, or 3.5%, below the President's combined FY2000 supplemental/FY2001requests, but is substantially higher than the roughly $13.4 billion spendingmeasures passed by the House and Senate during the summer. Moreover, P.L.106-429 fully funds several top Administration priorities, including $435 million forinternational debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative. Congress further boosted funding for several global health programs, including $315million for HIV/AIDS and $60 million for malaria control. The annual Foreign Operations appropriations bill is the primary legislativevehicle through which Congress reviews and votes on the U.S. foreign assistancebudget and influences executive branch foreign policy making generally. (1) It containsthe largest share -- about two-thirds -- of total international affairs spending by theUnited States (see Figure 1 ). The legislation funds all U.S. bilateral developmentassistance programs, managed mostly by the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), together with several smaller independent foreign aidagencies, such as the Peace Corps and the Inter-American and African DevelopmentFoundations. Most humanitarian aid activities are funded within Foreign Operations,including USAID's disaster program and State Department's refugee relief support. (2) Foreign Operations includes separate accounts for aid programs in the former SovietUnion (also referred to as the Independent States account) and Central/EasternEurope, activities that are jointly managed by USAID and the State Department. Security assistance (economic and military aid) for Israel and Egypt is also part of theForeign Operations spending measure, as are smaller security aid programsadministered largely by the State Department, in conjunction with USAID and thePentagon. U.S. contributions to the World Bank and other regional multilateraldevelopment banks, managed by the Treasury Department, and voluntary paymentsto international organizations, handled by the State Department, are also funded inthe Foreign Operations bill. Finally, the legislation includes appropriations for threeexport promotion agencies: the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC),the Export-Import Bank, and the Trade and Development Agency. From the perspective of congressional oversight and involvement in U.S. foreign aid policy making, the Foreign Operations bill has taken on even greatersignificance during the past 15 years. Congress has not enacted a foreign aidauthorization bill since 1985, leaving most foreign assistance programs withoutregular authorizations emanating from the legislative oversight committees. As aresult, Foreign Operations spending measures developed by the appropriationscommittees increasingly have expanded their scope beyond spending issues andplayed a major role in shaping, authorizing, and guiding both executive andcongressional foreign aid and broader foreign policy initiatives. It has been largelythrough Foreign Operations appropriations that the United States has modified aidpolicy and resource allocation priorities since the end of the Cold War. Thelegislation has also been a key tool used by Congress to apply restrictions andconditions on Administration management of foreign assistance, actions that havefrequently resulted in executive-legislative clashes over presidential prerogatives inforeign policy making. Table 1. Status of Foreign OperationsAppropriations, FY2001 President Clinton submitted his FY2001 federal budget request to Congress on February 7, 2000, including funding proposals for Foreign Operations Appropriationsprograms. Subsequently, House and Senate Foreign Operations Subcommittees heldhearings, including testimony from Secretary of State Albright, Treasury SecretarySummers, and USAID Administrator Anderson. The Senate AppropriationsCommittee bypassed subcommittee markup, and ordered reported S. 2522 on May 9. Because of disputes over scheduling and the opportunity by theminority to offer amendments to other legislation, the Senate delayed taking up S. 2522 . Those problems were settled and the Senate approved S. 2522 on June 22. The House Foreign Operations Subcommitteemarked up its companion bill, H.R. 4811 , on June 20, followed by fullCommittee approval on June 27. The House approved H.R. 4811 onJuly 13 (239-185). House and Senate conferees filed a conference report for H.R. 4811 on October 24 ( H.Rept. 106-997 ). Congress approved thereport on October 25, the House by a vote of 307-101 and Senate by a vote of 65-27. President Clinton signed into law H.R. 4811 on November 6, 2000 ( P.L.106-429 ). (3) As the United States has adjusted its foreign and defense policy to a post-ColdWar environment, one of the major foreign assistance challenges for Congress andexecutive branch policymakers has been to formulate the most effective foreign aidprogram amidst a tightening resource base. A dominant characteristic of ForeignOperations funding trends in the most recent years has been the degree to which foreign policy contingencies and international disasters have created demands foradditional resources beyond those originally requested by the President. Congress approved substantial amounts for FY1999 and FY2000 through "emergency" orsupplemental appropriation mechanisms, amounts that are over and above what isenacted in "regular" Foreign Operations bills. After peaking at $20.7 billion in FY1985, Foreign Operations appropriations began a period of decline, falling to about $12.3 billion in FY1997. Foreign aidspending cuts were especially sharp in FY1996 when Congress cut funding by $1.15billion, nearly 9% from the previous year. Many government and non-governmentexperts argued that these budget reductions seriously undermined U.S. foreign policyinterests and limited the ability of American officials to influence overseas events. After Foreign Operations funding levels fell again in FY1997 -- although by much smaller amounts -- the State Department and other executive agencieslaunched an aggressive campaign to reverse the decade-long decline in the foreignpolicy budget. This effort coincided with congressional approval of a near $1 billionincrease for FY1998, setting Foreign Operations appropriations at $13.15 billion. Foreign Operations funds rose again to $15.4 billion in FY1999 when lawmakers, atthe urging of the White House, added nearly $900 million in the final days of the105th Congress and another $2.1 billion for Central American hurricane relief andKosovo emergency assistance in supplemental funding. Amounts enacted for FY2000 - $16.5 billion - were also augmented by late-year "emergency" add-ons recommended by the President, including $1.8 billionfor the Wye River/Middle East peace accord and $1.1 billion supplementalassistance, mostly for a new counternarcotics initiative in Colombia. As shown in Table 2 , the amount for FY2000 is the highest in six years and the largest fundinglevel, in nominal terms, for Foreign Operations since FY1985. Nevertheless, whencalculated using constant dollars - taking into account the effects of inflation -FY2000 Foreign Operations amounts are 47% less than the high point of FY1985,15% less than the annual average appropriation during the late 1980s, and 3% lessthan FY1992, a year that might be considered the first post-Cold War foreign aidbudget. FY2000 Foreign Operations spending level represents 0.91% of the entirefederal budget and 2.8% of total discretionary budget authority. By comparison,these same figures in FY1985 were 2% and 4.6%, respectively. Table 2. Foreign Operations Appropriations, FY1994 to FY2000 (discretionary budget authority in billionsof current dollars) * FY1999 excludes $17.861 billion for the IMF. Usually, Appropriation Committees begin markups of their spending bills only after Congress has adopted a budget resolution and funds have been distributed to theAppropriations panels under what is referred to as the Section 302(a) allocationprocess, a reference to the pertinent authority in the Congressional Budget Act. Following this, House and Senate Appropriations Committees separately decide howto allot the total amount available among their 13 subcommittees, staying within thefunctional guidelines set in the budget resolution. This second step is referred to asthe Section 302(b) allocation. As noted above, foreign policy funds are appropriatedwithin four bills with Foreign Operations having the largest share of around 67-70%in most years. How much foreign policy money to allocate to each of the four subcommittees, and how to distribute the funds among the numerous programs remain decisionsexclusively reserved for the Appropriations Committees.