December 16, 2014. The President signed into law the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 ( H.R. 83 / P.L. 113-235 ). The House had passed the legislation on December 11, 2014; the Senate passed it December 13, 2014. November Amendments to the Request . On November 5 and 10, 2014, the Administration submitted amendments to its FY2015 budget request to address the Ebola crisis and the threat posed by the Islamic State (IS), respectively. The Administration requested an additional $2.89 billion in emergency funding through international affairs accounts for activities related to Ebola, including a $792 million contingency fund. An additional $520 million was requested for the international affairs OCO budget to support efforts to defeat IS and address humanitarian needs related to IS attacks. Together with the June 2014 OCO amendment, these amendments increased the total FY2015 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs request to $53.50 billion. Continuing Resolution s (CR). The House and Senate were unable to pass regular appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year and, therefore, passed H.J.Res. 124 , Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015, on September 17 and 18, respectively. The President signed the CR into law ( P.L. 113-164 ) on September 19, 2014. The CR funded government agencies and programs at an across-the-board reduction of .0554% below the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 ( P.L. 113-76 ), funding rate through December 11, 2014. OCO funds were not subject to the reduction. The CR included some anomalies, with one for foreign affairs: Section 145 provided the Department of State with the ability to exceed the rate for operations that would otherwise apply to funds in a number of accounts—International Broadcasting Operations, Economic Support Fund (ESF), Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining, and Related Programs (NADR), International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement (INCLE), and Foreign Military Financing (FMF)—to sustain assistance for Ukraine and other independent states in that region. Two additional CRs— P.L. 113-202 and H.J.Res. 131 —kept the government funded until the full-year appropriations bill was signed into law. June OCO Amendment . On June 27, the Administration amended its OCO request, asking for an additional $1.35 billion in State-Foreign Operations OCO funds (out of a total $65.8 billion OCO request, mostly for Department of Defense programs) for peacekeeping and counterterrorism activities. Committee Action. On June 19, 2014, the Senate Appropriations Committee introduced and passed S. 2499 , an SFOPS appropriation for FY2015 that totaled $47.18 billion. The House Appropriations Committee introduced and passed an FY2015 SFOPS appropriation, H.R. 5013 , on June 27, which recommended total funding of $48.45 billion. (See Appendix A for account-by-account Request, House and Senate comparisons.) 302(b) Allocations. On April 8, 2014, the House agreed to a $48.45 billion allocation for State-Foreign Operations accounts for FY2015; the Senate approved an SFOPS allocation of $48.48 billion (see Table 1 ) on May 22. Hearings. In March and April 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah testified on the request before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as well as the House Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees. On July 17, 2014, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Heather Higginbottom testified before the House Budget Committee regarding the amended OCO request. On November 11, 2014, Deputy Secretary Higginbottom testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the State Department response to the Ebola crisis. Budget Submission. The Obama Administration submitted its original FY2015 budget request, including for International Affairs (function 150), to Congress on March 4, 2014. Of the total FY2015 foreign a ffairs request, $17.09 billion wa s for State Department Operations and related agencies, a 7.8% increase from the FY2014 funding estimate of $15.86 billion. For Foreign Op erations, the Administration requested $32.99 billion, a 2.2% decrease from the FY2014 estimate of $33.72 billion. The State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations fund a variety of U.S. foreign affairs programs and activities. These include State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operations, bilateral economic and security assistance, contributions to international organizations and multilateral financial institutions, public diplomacy, such as educational and cultural exchanges and international broadcasting, and certain international commissions. The amended FY2015 foreign affairs request (about 1% of the total FY2015 budget request) would have increased overall SFOPS funding by 8.8% from the FY2014 funding estimate. It would have increased State Department and related activities (about one-third of the foreign affairs request) by 8.3% and foreign aid activities (about two-thirds of the request) by 7.7%. The amended Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) portion of the FY2015 request was 14.6%, compared to 13.3% in FY2014, and 5% of the amended request was designated as emergency Ebola funding. In addition to its budget request, the Administration proposed a new Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative that, it said, was to provide funds in a budget-neutral way for furthering its other priorities. Figure 1 provides a breakout of the total FY2015 SFOPS appropriations budget request. For the FY2015 foreign affairs budget, the Administration requested $7.785 billion (as amended) for OCO—more than double the $3.8 billion requested in FY2014, and 19% more than Congress appropriated for that year (after rescissions). The Administration sought to expand OCO use in FY2015 beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to include support for the Syrian opposition and Syrian refugees. The Administration also requested OCO funds for a new Peacekeeping Response Mechanism (PKRM) intended to provide more flexibility to address peacekeeping missions in Africa and other regions experiencing conflict. The House committee bill, H.R. 5013 , included $5.9 billion in OCO funds, stating that OCO funds should be phased out over time. The House Appropriations Committee included OCO funds beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to include Middle East and North Africa, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and humanitarian crises resulting from conflict. The Senate committee proposal, S. 2499 , included $8.6 billion in OCO funds and specifically stated that OCO funds would be available beyond Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to also include Syria, Jordan, Central America, and for extraordinary costs of U.S. response for humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, among other purposes. The final FY2015 appropriation included $9.26 billion for OCO, more than either House or Senate proposals, largely because of additional OCO funding to counter the Islamic State (IS). History of OCO in International Affairs. Congress passed emergency supplemental appropriations for international affairs each year between FY2006 and FY2010, primarily for civilian activities related to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. No supplementals were part of the FY2011 foreign affairs budget. In FY2012, the Administration requested foreign affairs OCO funds for the first time. That year the Administration requested $8.7 billion for OCO for the frontline states of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Congress appropriated $11.2 billion, however, for frontline states, as well as for other uses, such as Peacekeeping Operations in Somalia, Economic Support Funds (ESF) for Somalia and Yemen, and Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR) for Kenya. The FY2015 request for OCO was about 95% of what Congress enacted in FY2012. (See Table 2 .) Since FY2012, the Administration's foreign affairs budget has distinguished between what it has interchangeably called "enduring", "base," or "ongoing" funding, and funding to support "overseas contingency operations" (OCO), described in budget documents as "extraordinary, but temporary, costs of the Department of State and USAID in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan." Congress has adopted this approach, but has defined OCO more broadly. In each of the last three years, Congress appropriated more OCO funding for foreign affairs than was requested, and for a broader range of countries and activities. Within the foreign affairs budget in FY2012, the Obama Administration requested $8.7 billion for OCO, and Congress enacted $11.2 billion. In FY2013, the Administration requested $8.2 billion for OCO, but Congress enacted $10.8 billion (net rescissions). The FY2014 request continued this pattern; the Administration requested $3.8 billion of OCO funds for foreign affairs, while Congress appropriated $6.5 billion (net rescissions). The OCO designation has significant budget implications, as OCO funds are subject to sequestration, but do not count against the spending caps established by law (see text box below). The Obama Administration added to its FY2015 budget a new government-wide proposal referred to as the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative. This proposed $56 billion fund was divided equally between defense and nondefense expenditures. The cost of the initiative was to be offset largely with targeted spending cuts and closed tax loopholes, Administration officials stated.