285. Letter From Acting Secretary of State Dam to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Stockman)1
The Secretary has carefully reviewed the FY 1984 foreign assistance program you have proposed in your pass back.2 He feels strongly that it lacks the resources necessary to implement the President’s foreign and national security policy decisions. Neither does it provide the balance between economic and security resources required in a political sense to win passage of the request in Congress. Given the crippling political and foreign policy difficulties posed by the OMB budget [Page 708] recommendations, we have no choice but to appeal OMB’s package of proposed program decreases.
The foreign affairs agencies have invested considerable time and thought in preparing our integrated budget recommendation. The Secretary and I personally reviewed the budget, and we are convinced that it constitutes a no-frills approach to foreign assistance. Cap Weinberger shares our view that adequate foreign assistance levels are an indispensable component of our national security. I have enclosed fact sheets assessing the costs to our foreign and security policy which would result from the cuts OMB proposes.3
The Secretary knows full well the painful budgetary choices confronting the President and our Administration, and the substantial work that goes into preparation of the overall budget. At his request, therefore, Under Secretary Schneider will take the lead, working with AID Administrator McPherson and others, to put together further detailed comments on our request in light of the OMB pass back, and we will be providing these to you.
The $35 million suggested in the OMB pass back will not be sufficient to translate the President’s democracy initiative into operational reality. The Secretary, along with Secretary Weinberger, and Messrs. Wick, Casey, and McFarlane, set a working figure for the project of approximately $100 million, which I understand will be reflected in USIA’s submission to you. Specific program proposals will be forwarded to you shortly.
The Secretary’s goal remains to ensure that the President has the resources necessary to sustain our foreign policy. We will propose no more, but we can afford nothing less.
Sincerely,
- Source: Reagan Library, Norman Bailey Files, International Economics File, AID Policy (December 1982). Confidential. Shultz was accompanying Reagan on an official working visit to Brasilia and Sao Paulo from November 30 to December 3.↩
- Details of the pass back were outlined in a November 26 memorandum from Schneider and McPherson to Shultz, in which they explained that the OMB cut was directed “in large measure against our various forms of economic assistance, bilateral development assistance, MDBs, food aid, and the Economic Support Fund.” (Reagan Library, George Shultz Papers, Official Memoranda (11/29/1982); NLR–775–26B–8–1–2)↩
- Attached but not printed.↩
- Dam signed “Ken” above his typed signature.↩