The House Foreign Affairs Committee is on Wednesday discussing a bill to authorize the State Department’s upcoming budget. The measure includes a proposal to eliminate federal funding to the East-West Center, and would prohibit any money “to fund, make a grant to, provide assistance to, or otherwise support” the East-West Center. 

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa says she is supporting an amendment put forth by Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) to preserve funding for the center.

Hanabusa wrote a letter to Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), saying eliminating funding before November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Honolulu is particularly harmful. 

“If we decide to eliminate this center for collaboration between the U.S. and Asia,” Hanabusa wrote, “We are sending the wrong message to the world at a time when our country hosts one of the most important meetings of the next 10 years.”