Minnesota Republican Chip Cravaack has launched the first legislative initiative of his month-old congressional career, taking aim at $46.5 million in annual funding to the United States Institute of Peace. The organization's mission of promoting conflict resolution around the globe, Cravaack said, can just as well be conducted by the other entities – including the Pentagon. "While no one can doubt the importance of seeking and making peace," Cravaack wrote in a letter to colleagues Monday, "this organization's goals can be accomplished by existing federal bureaucracies like the United States Department of State or Defense and by non-profit organizations that are not dependent on the federal government." The initiative by the former Navy aviator takes the form of an amendment to a spending measure for the current budget year, which ends in September. It is but one of a passel of budget cut proposals from the new GOP majority in the U.S. House as President Obama released a budget with a projected $1.6 trillion deficit. "While I appreciate the efforts taken to date by the United States Institute of Peace," Cravaack said, "given our current constraints I cannot justify the taxation of American citizens for the United States Institute of Peace.
