International charities may not receive as much money from President Obama’s budget as they have hoped.

In an interview with National Public Radio this morning, Kent Conrad, the Democratic senator who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said he intends to cut $4-billion in foreign assistance from Mr. Obama’s proposed budget. The president’s proposal would have increased foreign aid to more than $50-billion by 2012.

An article today in The Christian Science Monitor said the Obama administration is signaling that its pledge to increase foreign aid to $50-billion may not be met by the end of the president’s first term. “With a significantly worse economic and budgetary picture, the White House Office of Management and Budget speaks of ‘extending out’ the goal of doubling foreign aid — presumably into what administration officials envision as a second term for the president,” the newspaper reports.