Watchdog: US Foreign Policy Funding Cuts Could Bring Disastrous Consequences

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Deadly diseases, war and terrorism threaten to strike the United States if President Donald Trump's proposed cuts in funding for diplomacy and foreign aid become law, the Center for American Progress research institute said in a report.

On Monday, the White House submitted to US Congress a $4.4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 which calls for reducing State Department funding by nearly 30 percent while boosting defense spending by 13 percent.

"The cuts, if adopted, would leave America less equipped to tackle conflict, pandemic disease, and extremism before they reach the nation’s shores," a press release summarizing the report said on Tuesday.

The release also warned that the Trump proposal would make the country more likely to end up in military conflict.

Earlier this week, US House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce pledged to fight Trump’s latest plan to scale back US spending on foreign affairs and would be backed by a bipartisan coalition.

Senator Patrick Leahy in a statement slammed the White House for making the decision to cut State Department funding "without any credible analysis" of the impact on US national interests.