Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, in his first year as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with responsibility for foreign aid, is putting his thumbprint on Western Hemisphere programs, particularly when it comes to Cuba and Colombia.
In the draft House fiscal 2024 State-Foreign Operations spending bill, where funding is slashed or even eliminated across numerous categories of foreign aid, particularly for climate change and multilateral programs, Diaz-Balart, who is Cuban American, wants to boost funding by 50 percent for democracy promotion efforts in Cuba, from $20 million in fiscal 2023 to $30 million.
The Florida Republican also wants to nearly triple funding for the Office of Cuba Broadcasting despite questions about whether editorial judgment deficiencies, which led among other things to the airing of antisemitic conspiracy theories, have been addressed. The Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which is part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, produces Radio and TV Martí and news and editorial content shared over social media and YouTube.
