This page presents the reconstructed record of outlays for international affairs, budget function 150, for fiscal years 1940 through 2031, with public diplomacy identified separately at each level of detail the sources permit. The series is compiled from the OMB Historical Tables, the agency tables of the annual Budget of the United States Government for FY1947 through FY2001, the Budget Appendix activity schedules for FY1967 through FY1987, and the Comprehensive Annual Reports of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Figures through FY2025 are actuals. Figures for FY2026 through FY2031 are the Administration’s proposals as presented in the FY2027 Budget; they appear as dashed lines and are not projections.
The chart shows program outlays under subfunctions 151 through 154, in constant FY2025 dollars or in nominal dollars. Subfunction 155 (international financial programs) is excluded from FY1962 onward because its year-to-year movement reflects International Monetary Fund transactions and credit re-estimates rather than program decisions. OMB does not publish subfunction detail before FY1962, and the series for those years is the inclusive Function 150 total. Measured against the size of the economy, the postwar relief and reconstruction years remain the highest on record, at 2.4 percent of GDP in FY1947 and 2.2 percent in FY1949, the first full year of the European Recovery Program. Measured in constant dollars, the two highest years on record are FY2023 and FY2022, the years in which the Ukraine supplemental appropriations were disbursed. Values for FY2026 through FY2031 are the Administration’s proposals.
The same program series is shown against two denominators: total federal outlays at left and gross domestic product at right. International affairs accounted for 11.0 percent of federal outlays in FY1950 and 0.86 percent in FY2025; as a share of GDP, the account declined from 1.7 percent to 0.20 percent over the same period. The Administration’s proposals would reduce the share of federal outlays to 0.43 percent by FY2031.
Subfunction outlays are shown in constant FY2025 dollars. International development and humanitarian assistance (151) is the largest subfunction in most years; international security assistance (152) exceeded it from FY1976 through FY1987, from FY1990 through FY1993, and in FY2002, and rose sharply again in FY2022 and FY2023. Conduct of foreign affairs (153) carries the Department of State’s operating accounts. Foreign information and exchange activities (154) is the smallest of the four program subfunctions in every year and is the subfunction most closely associated with public diplomacy; sections 4 and 5 examine it in greater detail. Subfunction 154 does not capture all public diplomacy spending: after the 1999 consolidation of the United States Information Agency into the Department, the Department’s public diplomacy program funds are carried in subfunction 153, and 154 retains the exchange and international broadcasting accounts. International financial programs (155) is negative in 48 of the 64 actual years shown because IMF transactions, credit re-estimates, and receipts are netted against outlays.
The left panel shows new obligational authority for the U.S. information program in constant FY2025 dollars: the Department of State’s international information program from FY1947 through FY1954, and the United States Information Agency (the International Communication Agency from 1978 to 1982) from its establishment in FY1954 through FY1999, its final year before consolidation into the Department. The FY1951 value is the enacted authority for the Campaign of Truth, which was spent over two fiscal years rather than one; outlays in FY1951 were $39.7 million. The right panel shows the five-component accounting used by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy for FY2013 through FY2024, with FY2000 through FY2012 reconstructed from Congressional Research Service appropriations reports and the Department’s congressional budget justifications. The reconstruction for FY2000 through FY2012 is partial: the salary component is not available before FY2013, and the Department’s public diplomacy program component is not available for FY2000 and FY2001. Gaps in either series are years for which no usable figure could be recovered.
The chart shows direct-program obligations under the Agency’s Salaries and Expenses appropriation by activity, as printed in the “Program by activities” schedules of the Budget Appendix, in nominal dollars; reimbursable obligations are excluded. The Appendix printed the split in this form from FY1965 through FY1985. The columns for FY1965 through FY1979 have been extracted and checked against the printed direct-program totals; cells that could not be read remain blank rather than estimated, and no FY1971 column was found in the volumes processed. Broadcasting is the Voice of America. Beginning with the FY1977 column, the first presented under the International Communication Agency following Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1977, the schedule replaces the press, motion picture, and information center activities with an exchange of persons activity, reflecting the transfer of the Department’s educational and cultural exchange programs to the Agency, and it no longer separates program production from direction and support. For FY1977 through FY1979 the direction, support, and other series therefore carries the consolidated production lines as well.