The fight over $7.5B in expiring aid and a rejected State Department grant
Devex Podcasts

The fight over $7.5B in expiring aid and a rejected State Department grant

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 3, 202626 min

We recently reported that roughly $7.5 billion in international affairs funding is set to expire by the end of this month. In a letter, more than 100 U.S. lawmakers have urged the State Department to spend the money. We unpack the situation and what it means for development spending, including the $3 billion previously slated for global health programs. While some politicians are urging the State Department to spend its expiring budget, Samaritan’s Purse is turning down a $300 million federal grant. The organization’s president, Franklin Graham, maintained that the group has “always relied on God, not government, for funding.” We discuss...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 7 of 12 · 0:34

readers would ideally like. So, let's turn to you first. You have been talking to people about the

are not terrifically happy about that. Do you want to talk us through that story a little bit?

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:34
  • B24:37
  • C17:38
  • C110:41
  • B215:42
  • B217:58
  • B221:30
  • C125:42

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 16%A2 34%B1 24%B2 20%C1 7%
  • 73% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 188 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 133 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

My name is David Engsworth and you're listening to This Week in Global Development hosted by myself, Richard Kamber and Adba Saldingham. And I'm joined by my colleagues Sarah Jovian and Alissa Milini, both reporters here. It's been a busy week at the State Department. We're going to talk about all the different things that the State Department has been up to. They're

0:23

certainly keeping things interesting for us, maybe a little bit more interesting than our readers would ideally like. So, let's turn to you first. You have been talking to people about the fact that several billion dollars of aid funding looks likely to expire and the fact that people are not terrifically happy about that. Do you want to talk us through that story a little bit?

0:44

For sure. So, just to set a little bit of a context, around this time last year, we reported on several rescission packages coming out of the State Department, which is essentially a word for when the White House or in this case the Office of Management and Budget, which is the White House budget arm, asks Congress to rescind funds that they've already approved. So we were

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (25 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy