US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has defended swingeing budget cuts to his own department proposed by President Donald Trump.
Speaking in Japan, he said the level of state department spending in the past had been “simply not sustainable” and he willingly accepted the “challenge”.
If Congress backs the budget, and that is far from a done deal, the state department and USAID face cuts of 28%.
Environmental programmes, medical research, and the Amtrak long-distance rail network would all lose out.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the largest source of public broadcasting money in the US, would lose its funding completely.
While Mr. Trump’s Republicans control both houses of Congress, segments of the budget plan are expected to face stiff resistance across the parties.
The budget, known as a “skinny budget”, will be limited to the $1tn portion of the $4tn annual federal budget that pays for US agencies and departments.
At a news conference in Tokyo, the US secretary of state said the White House was acting on the expectation that there would be fewer military conflicts involving the US directly “as time goes by” and that its allies would do more themselves to contribute to development aid and disaster assistance.
The state department was “coming off a historically high allocation of resources”, he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
“We are going to be able to do a lot with fewer dollars,” he said.
Under the budget plans, defence department spending would rise by $54bn (£44bn) or 10%, including $2bn for nuclear weapons, while homeland security would get a 6.8% boost.
In addition, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the maintenance and safety of the nuclear arsenal and its research labs, would gain $1.4bn.
Veterans Affairs would get a rise of 5.9%, or $4.4bn, to meet growing healthcare costs.
President Trump said in a message accompanying his budget plan: “A budget that puts America first must make the safety of our people its number one priority because without safety, there can be no prosperity.”
While the White House wants Mexico to pay for a controversial wall along the two countries’ border
* Some $1.5bn would be applied to pilot schemes to determine construction methods and locations
* And immigration enforcement and border patrol agents would get $314m to hire 1,500 new staff
In relative terms, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would lose the most, taking a hit of 31.4% or $2.6bn.
However, in dollar terms, health and human services would face the biggest cut of all: $12.6bn or 16.2%. It is not clear what research on diseases or disorders would lose the most money, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Agriculture loses 21% of its budget, labour 21% and transport 13%.
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