United States

The budget process for United States ODA commences in the year before the start of the financial year to which the budget relates.  For example, work on the budget for FY2012 (which commences on 1^st October 2011) began in the spring of 2010.

From the spring of the year prior to the start of the financial year to which the budget relates, USAID, in conjunction with its fed missions will draw up a planning budget. 

Budgets are passed to the Office for Management and Budget (OMB) and a review of budgets takes place from September of the year before the start of the financial year to which the budget relates.

In November, the OMB informs each agency of its initial decision on budget levels – commonly known as the ‘passback’.

Agencies can appeal and negotiate on the proposed budget and this process normally takes place between December and January.

The President’s Budget Proposal is then submitted to Congress by the first Monday in February.

During March, budget committees establish the broad parameters of the budget and propose budget resolutions.  These budget resolutions should be finalised by mid-April.

Between May and September sub-committees set the final, detailed budget plans.  These are set out in the 302(b) suballocations which, once published, can be obtained from the library of congress.

The House of Representatives and the Senate vote on the annual appropriations bills and any differences between the two chambers are resolved by a joint conference committee.

Once the budget has been passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate it is enated into law by the President.

The annual federal budget process should conclude by October 1st, the start of the government’s fiscal year. In years when the process has not been completed on time a series of “continuing resolutions” are usually approved by Congress to ensure the mechanisms of government can be financed until a budget agreement can be reached.

The United States has, by the standards of most DAC donors, a very large number of Government Departments and agencies which contribute at least part of their budget to ODA.  In their reporting of ODA to the OECD-DAC for 2009, the United States listed no fewer than sixteen specific agencies which contributed toward bilateral ODA.

Principal Development Agency – United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The principal development agency within the United States, USAID is an independent federal government agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State.  USAID is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and maintain a strong developing-country presence through its field offices around the world.  Also USAID has working relationships with more than 3,500 American companies and over 300 U.S.-based private voluntary organizations.

USAID typically accounts for 50%-60% of the United States’ reported bilateral ODA in any given year, making it easily the largest development agency of any of the DAC donors. In 2009 alone USAID reported over $14.7 billion of aid disbursements across all sectors and geographic regions in the developing world.

Department of Defense

Since 2005, the Department of Defense has contributed between 9% and 20% of the United States’ bilateral ODA.  This has mostly gone to Iraq and Afghanistan (70% of ODA from the Department of Defense went to these two recipients in 2009).  Sectorally, around a quarter of ODA from the Department of Defense goes to narcotics control and approximately 10% to land mine clearance and small arms control.  Apart from that, significant amounts of ODA are disbursed to a variety of infrastructure and public works programmes in the fields of transport, water & sanitation, energy distribution, etc.

State Department

Similarly, the State Department typically accounts for 10%-20% of the United States’ bilateral ODA in any given year.  Also like the Department of Defense, the States Department’s priorities are often, in the broad sense, security-related.

In 2009, almost four-fifths of ODA from the State department was accounted for by just two programmes:

• United States Population Migration and Refugee Assistance program (37% of the State Department’s reported bilateral ODA)
• Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Program (42% of the State Department’s reported bilateral ODA)

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services accounted for 12% of the United States’ bilateral ODA in 2008 and 10% in 2009.

By far the largest component of ODA from the Department of Health and Human Services is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  Most of the funding for PEPFAR comes from the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services and, in 2009, PEPFAR accounted for 74% of the bilateral ODA reported by this department.

Additionally, a further 20% of ODA reported by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2009 was for the costs of housing refugees within the United States itself.

Treasury Department

Although the Treasury Department’s bilateral ODA is relatively small (approx. $50million) in 2009, this department leads the United States’ engagement with, and funding of, many key multilateral bodies.  These include The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund and the various regional development banks.

Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)

The Millennium Challenge Corporation was established in 2004 to provide foreign assistance based on the principles of:

• Competitive Selection of potential aid recipients
• Country-led solutions
• Country-led implementation

In 2009, ODA disbursements from the MCC grew to over $900 million (almost 60% higher in nominal terms than in 2008).  This meant that, in 2009, the MCC accounted for almost 4% of the United States’ bilateral ODA.

However, over 21% of the MCC’s reported ODA disbursements in 2009 were classed as administrative costs.  This is a far higher proportion than in other US development agencies – USAID, for example, reported 6.6% of its ODA disbursements in 2009 as administrative costs.

Other agencies

In addition to those departments and agencies mentioned above, the United States reports ODA disbursements from a variety of other sources.  The following other departments and agencies disburse relatively small amounts of bilateral ODA (typically around 1% or less of total US bilateral ODA):

• Department of Agriculture
• Peace Corps
• Department of Interior
• Department of Energy
• Export Import Bank
• Department of Labor
• Trade and Development Agency
• African Development Foundation
• International Association of Development Funds

Main US Government budget site http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/

US Department of State – Foreign Assistance Budget Page http://www.state.gov/f/budget/index.htm

Detailed 302(b) suballocations can be found here:  http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app11.html.  Click on the fiscal year that you would like documentation for and then look along the line marked “State/Foreign Operations”.

The documents relating to State Department & Foreign Operations budgets are typically divided into six sections or ‘titles’.  The titles that are of interest when analysing the ODA components of the budget are as follows:

• Title 2 – United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
• Title 3 – Bilateral Foreign Assistance
• Title 4 – International Security Assistance (which includes narcotics control, demining and some other areas of spending eligible for inclusion on ODA)
• Title 5 – Multilateral Economic Assistance
• Title 6 – Export & Investment Assistance (which includes the activities of some of the smaller agencies contributing toward US ODA such as the Export-Import Bank, the Trade and Development Agency and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation)