The Trump administration plans to cut $420 million out of the State Department budget, including $5 million that went to an annual program honoring an ambassador killed in Benghazi, Libya, The Washington Post reported.
This is the third time the nonprofit Stevens Initiative's $5 million has been cut out of the budget, but like the past two, it can still be funded, according to the report. Amb. Chris Stevens was killed in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi.
"The flexibility of the ECE [Educational and Cultural Exchange] budget allows for programs to continue under other line items, such as 'Professional and Cultural Exchanges,' even when they do not have a separate budget line item," the State Department official wrote in an email to the Post on the condition of anonymity.
Republicans have faulted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for failing to protect Amb. Stevens and three other Americans killed in the attack.
"By the way, with Benghazi and with our ambassador — remember? That's all Hillary Clinton, folks," Trump charged during the 2016 campaign, per the Post.
Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a part of the GOP-led effort to grill Clinton on failing to adequately protect U.S. ambassadors, claiming she put "political expediency and politics ahead of the men and women on the ground," per the report.
Now, Democrats claim Pompeo is not doing enough to back State officials like Amb. Marie Yovanovitch, who were removed from their posts for allegedly undermining the president's foreign policy.
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