President Barack Obama and Congress are relieved to be done with the recent debt ceiling increase crisis, but the next battle over spending is just five weeks away and the International Fund for Ireland will be a part, albeit a fiscally small one, in what is certain to be another rancorous debate.
House Republicans are calling for a budget with 425 billion dollars less than what many agreed to in the debt ceiling compromise. When the president returns to the White House in September, and the House and Senate resume their duties in the Capitol, it will be time to take up the budget line by line.
The current GOP-sponsored House Appropriations bill contains plenty of special interest foreign designations, but none for Ireland. The House Appropriations Committee is currently chaired by GOP congressman Hal Rogers from Kentucky.
Cyprus is slated to receive over $3 million for a program that sounds like it could apply to Ireland, that being "bi-communal projects and measures aimed at reunification of the island designed to reduce tensions and promote peace."
The kingdom of Jordan gets over $365 million, just as long as none of it goes to Hezbollah or "any other foreign terrorist group." In the midst of the global downturn, Israel's economy has been so strong that the country's greatest concern has been inflation, yet Israel is due to receive $20 million to settle refugees there.
Since the last continuing resolution earlier this year specifically targeted and eliminated funding for the International Fund for Ireland, there will have to be a concerted effort to reinstate any future U.S. contribution.
The effort by critics of the IFI to vilify the average annual $15 million contribution as an example of misguided spending still resonates for some.
Conservatives and Tea Party activists in particular, continue to cite the IFI derisively in literature distributed, and in letters to editors - as if the 2011 funding had not already been cut-off.
A letter to the editor this week in a Yuma, Arizona newspaper penned by a Russell "Rusty" Washum stated: "First, Congress should eliminate funding for the International Fund for Ireland. Charity begins at home. Mohair subsidies and the "death gratuity" for members of Congress are far more worthy recipients of our hard-earned tax dollars. Let the European Union pony up the bill to help Ireland. That's what neighbors are for."
Mr. Washum did not return calls by the Echo requesting to interview him further over his concerns about the IFI.
Normally, by August, some of the congressional appropriation bills would have already been voted on and sent to the White House. This year, only one has made it to a conference committee, a fact that signals a looming battle that could again see threats of a government shut down.
At this time, those threats should not include invoking Ireland or Irish issues, as there does not appear to be money, IFI or otherwise, pointed in Dublin or Belfast's direction in the U.S. budget.
