About six months into the fiscal year, the 115 th Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 ( H.R. 1625 ; P.L. 115-141 , signed March 23, 2018), which provided FY2018 funding through September 30, 2018. Division K of the act―State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS)―provided a total of $54.18 billion, including Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds and rescissions. This represented a decrease of 6.1% from the FY2017 actual funding level. Of the total, $16.22 billion (excluding rescissions) was for the Department of State, international broadcasting, and related agencies, 10.7% below FY2017 levels, and $37.99 billion (excluding rescissions) was enacted for foreign operations, 4% below the FY2017 funding level. On May 23, 2017, the Trump Administration submitted its FY2018 budget request to Congress (see Appendix B for a discussion on the differences between the International Affairs budget function and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations). The SFOPS total requested for FY2018 (including Overseas Contingency Operations funds, otherwise known as OCO) was $40.25 billion, 30% below the enacted FY2017 SFOPS funding level of $57.53 billion. For State Operations and Related Programs, the request was $13.20 billion, 27% below the enacted level of $18.09 billion. For Foreign Operations, the FY2018 request was $27.05 billion, 31% below the FY2017 enacted level of $39.44 billion. (For a comparison of the FY2018 SFOPS request with past funding levels, see Table 1 below. For account-by-account details regarding the FY2018 request and legislation, compared to the FY2017 enacted funding levels, see Table A-1 .) The SFOPS FY2018 request sought a total of $12.0 billion in OCO funds for FY2018, representing a 42% reduction compared with the FY2017 enacted OCO level. The Trump Administration wanted to expand the designation of OCO funds from short-term, temporary war-related costs as requested by the Obama Administration to include longer-term, core costs for countries vital to U.S. national interests; for extraordinary activities that are critical to U.S. national security objectives; for preventing, addressing, or recovering from natural and manmade crises; and for securing State Department and USAID global operations. The Administration's broader FY2018 request to fund the government as a whole would have breached defense discretionary spending caps but not the caps for nondefense (that includes SFOPS) required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25 ). To avoid sequestration, on February 9, 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA, H.R. 1892 ; P.L. 115-123 ) that raised both security and nonsecurity discretionary spending limits for FY2018 and FY2019. On September 7 and 8, 2017, the Senate and House respectively passed the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, and Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act, 2017 ( H.R. 601 ; P.L. 115-56 ). As signed by the President on September 8, 2017, the act provided continuous government funding (continuing resolution, or CR) at the FY2017 level, reduced by 0.6791%, through December 8, 2017. The date was extended by subsequent continuing resolutions, first through December 22, 2017, by P.L. 115-90 ; then January 19, 2018, by P.L. 115-96 ; and February 8, 2018 by P.L. 115-120 . Senate action . On September 7, 2017, the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported its State, Foreign Operations, 2018 bill ( S. 1780 ), with a total of $51.35 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding for FY2018 ($6.2 billion more than the FY2018 request), including $20.79 billion for OCO (the same as FY2017 enacted). As compared with the request and the House bill, the Senate bill included 42% more OCO funds. OCO funds were significant in negotiating the final consolidated bill because of the potential for sequestration. The Senate SFOPS total funding level was $11.1 billion (22%) more than the Administration request and $3.8 billion (7%) more than the House bill. Supporting comparatively strong funding levels for SFOPS, the Senate committee report ( S.Rept. 115-152 ) referred to the President's SFOPS proposed reductions for FY2018 as "unjustified cuts" and stated that "battlefield technology and firepower cannot replace diplomacy and development." The report also included statements that would limit the Administration's discretion with respect to foreign affairs programs, such as setting minimum levels for Foreign Service and Civil Service positions that the appropriations are intended to support, and restates the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (CBICA; title X of P.L. 93-344 ) that "limits the authority of the administration to reduce or withhold funding provided in the law by action or inaction." House action . On July 24, 2017, the House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 3362 ( H.Rept. 115-253 ), a FY2018 SFOPS proposal that would have provided $35.50 billion for enduring funds and $12.02 billion for OCO, totaling $47.52 billion. While the bill would have provided $7.3 billion more than the President's request, it represented a $10 billion (17%) decline compared with FY2017 total enacted. Overall, the House committee's bill proposed $1.24 billion (3%) less for enduring funds than the FY2017 enacted budget and $8.8 billion (42%) less for OCO funds. Compared with the Senate bill, the House funding levels would have been $3.8 billion (7%) less. The House Appropriations committee report stated the following: "Military power alone cannot solve all the [challenges and emerging crises throughout the world], especially over the long term. Advancing United States national interests also requires effective diplomatic engagement and foreign assistance." At the same time, the committee recognized resources are limited, and it supported steps to reduce waste, inefficiency, and duplication, and to press other nations to do more (see Table 2 ). On September 14, 2017, the House approved a consolidated appropriations bill for FY2018, H.R. 3354 , which incorporated the text of H.R. 3362 in the SFOPS section, Division G. BBA of 2018 . On February 9, 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA, H.R. 1892 ; P.L. 115-123 ), which continued government funding through March 23, 2018; raised both defense and nondefense discretionary spending limits for FY2018 and FY2019; and extended direct spending reductions through FY2027. The act eased the FY2018 budget process and prevented a breach of the BCA spending limits by raising the overall revised discretionary spending limits from $1.069 trillion for FY2017 to $1.208 trillion for FY2018. It raised the defense cap by $80 billion to $629 billion and the nondefense cap (including SFOPS) by $63 billion to $579 billion for FY2018. On March 23, 2018, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 ( H.R. 1625 ; P.L. 115-141 ), which provided FY2018 funding through September 30, 2018. Division K of the act―State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS)―included a total of $54.18 billion, about 6% less than the FY2017 SFOPS funding. The Trump Administration's FY2018 budget request reflected a departure from past Administration budget proposals for the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS). Discussion of some key changes follows. The Administration proposed to cut funding for the State Department and Related Agency category by 27% from FY2017 actual levels, to $13.20 billion. Base funding would have decreased under the Administration's proposal by 19%, while OCO funding would have decreased by 41%. Cuts were proposed in areas including Capital Security Cost Sharing (CSCS) and Maintenance Cost Sharing (MCS) program contributions, contributions to international organizations, contributions for international peacekeeping activities, and educational and cultural exchange programs. Among the top-line accounts, the Diplomatic and Consular Programs (D&CP) account, the State Department's main operations account, would have declined by 15% to $8.26 billion had the Administration's proposal been enacted. Additionally, the Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance (ESCM) account would have totaled $1.14 billion, a 62% decrease from the FY2017 actual level. Other noteworthy reductions in the proposal included significant cuts in "Related Programs" accounts, which fund a number of nongovernmental institutions (see Table 3 ). For example, the FY2018 request sought to end direct appropriations for the Asia Foundation and the East-West Center (the State Department said in its request that these organizations would remain eligible to compete for federal grant funding opportunities and receive private sector contributions). The request also looked to cut the direct appropriation for the National Endowment for Democracy by 39% from the FY2017 actual level (see Table 3 ). However, P.L. 115-141 maintained direct appropriations to all three of these entities that were equal to the direct appropriations provided to each of them in FY2017. H.R.