Former U.S. diplomats warn Congress against sharp cuts in foreign aid

Five former U.S. Secretaries of State on Monday issued a message to Congress to warn against passing a bill to sharply cut U.S. foreign aid due to current economic downturn, citing it as "critical to America's global leadership." "We believe these programs are critical to America's global leadership and represent strategic investments in our nation's security and prosperity," the five former top diplomats told Congress members in a joint letter issued via the U.S. Global Leadership Council, a broad-based influential network of 400 U.S. businesses, non-governmental organizations and foreign policy experts. The five former diplomats included Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, who all worked for previous Republican administrations, and Madeleine Albright, who served in the administration under former Democrat President Bill Clinton. The letter was issued as the U.S. Senate will consider this week a bill to cut the 53.3-billion-U.S. dollar International Affairs Budget in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, which covers the U.S. foreign aid programs the five called "a strategic investment to advance America's interests throughout the world." "Development and diplomacy programs are a cost-effective tool to tackle the root causes of conflict and extremism, build new markets for U.S. goods and services, respond to humanitarian crises, and demonstrate America's proud tradition of goodwill and global leadership," the letter said. Noting that the foreign aid budget already received "deep and disproportionate cuts" this year, the letter cautioned the U.S. Congress that "now is not the time for America to retreat from the world, which is why we need a strong and effective International Affairs Budget" to ensure a better, safer world and a more prosperous future. The topic of foreign aid also surfaced in the latest debate held by Republican presidential contenders on Saturday, with leading candidates Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts Governor, and Texas Governor Rick Perry both vowed to completely overhaul the foreign aid programs, especially the aid to Pakistan. Responding to a question about U.S. aid to Pakistan in order to seek its help in fighting terrorists, Romney said one of the things he, if elected, would do with U.S. foreign aid commitments is to "start everything at zero." But another Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman, former U.S. Ambassador to China appointed by President Barack Obama, voiced opposition to deep cuts in U.S. foreign aid, which he called as a sound investment because the U.S. "gets some return on that invested dollar."