Episode 60: Government Disfunction Hampers Global Leadership

Global in the Granite State

The United States of America's government faces a funding deadline of November 17th of this year to pass a full budget or a continuing resolution, or shut down non-essential operations. In what has seemingly become a yearly tradition, the two Parties cannot come together on a number of issues and have missed their self imposed deadline to fund the government once already. On top of this, the House of Representatives spent three critical weeks trying to find a new Speaker of the House, delaying important conversations on creating agreement on how to move a budget forward. Of course, there are a wide range of important impacts that come from a government shutdown, which are well documented by the media. However, not many understand the impacts that these potential shutdowns, as well as wider governmental disfunction, have on the US' ability to project its power and influence abroad.
In this episode, we talk with Liz Schrayer, President and CEO of the US Global Leadership Coalition, a broad-based coalition of over 500 businesses and NGOs that advocates for strong U.S. global leadership through development and diplomacy. She outlines for us the problems that these self inflicted issues raise for the United State's global leadership, foreign policy goals, and national security interest. From allowing our adversaries to claim democracy doesn't work, to distracting the government from important global issues, it is important that the government continues its regular functions, and remains focused on its important interests at home and abroad. Of course, global issues cannot always direct governmental decisions, but they should factor into our understanding of the impacts of a government shutdown.
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Liz Schrayer serves as President & CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), a broad based coalition of over 500 businesses and NGOs that advocates for strong U.S. global leadership through development and diplomacy. Under her leadership, the USGLC has grown to a nationwide network of advocates in all 50 states and boasts a bipartisan Advisory Council which includes virtually every living former Secretary of State, and a National Security Advisory Council consisting of nearly 200 retired three and four-star generals and admirals.
Ms. Schrayer currently serves on the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation’s Development Advisory Council, USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACFVA), as well as several advisory boards and committees for the University of Michigan, including the Ford School of Public Policy. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
In addition to running the USGLC, Ms. Schrayer serves as President of Schrayer & Associates, Inc., a nationwide consulting firm founded in 1995, which works on a wide range of domestic and international issues.
Prior to starting her own firm, Ms. Schrayer served as the national Political Director of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) for more than a decade. She worked on Capitol Hill, founding the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and in state government. She has traveled across the country organizing citizen advocates in every state. Ms. Schrayer has been published in TIME, Newsweek, USA Today, and The Hill, among other outlets. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and resides in Maryland with her husband Jeff Schwaber, an attorney who helped launch the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.