III 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 312 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES October 13, 2009 Mr. Dodd (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Bond, Mr. Burris, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Kerry, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Casey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Leahy, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Lautenberg, and Mrs. Boxer) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations November 9, 2009 Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the Senate on empowering and strengthening the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Whereas foreign development assistance is an important foreign policy tool in addition to diplomacy and the military; Whereas the United States is currently involved in two wars, both of which military and civilian experts agree can only be solved with sound development strategies to complement military efforts; Whereas development assistance is part of any comprehensive United States response to regional conflicts, terrorist threats, weapons proliferation, disease pandemics, and persistent widespread poverty; Whereas in 2002 and 2006, the United States National Security Strategy included global development, along with the military and diplomacy, as the three pillars of national security; Whereas in its early years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had more than 5,000 full-time Foreign Service Officers and 15,000 total staff; Whereas in 2008, USAID had slightly more than 1,000 full-time Foreign Service Officers and 3,000 total staff; Whereas the loss in permanent staff and institutional expertise at USAID has compelled it to rely disproportionally on outside contractors to help manage programs in more than 150 countries; Whereas from the early 1960s until 1992, the Office of Management and Budget enforced a rule mandating that all foreign aid programs and spending must go through USAID, except when USAID chose to contract with other Federal agencies; Whereas today more than half of all foreign assistance programs are administered by Federal agencies other than USAID, and funding for such programs is spread across more than 20 United States Government agencies; and Whereas this decline in personnel, budgets, and coordinating leadership has diminished the capacity of USAID and the United States Government to provide development assistance and implement foreign assistance programs: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the Senate that— (1)a highly capable and knowledgeable individual should be nominated with all expediency and exigency to serve as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development; (2)the Administrator should— (A)serve as the chief advocate for United States development capacity and strategy in top-level national security deliberations; (B)serve as a powerful advocate and effective leader of an empowered USAID; and (C)marshal the resources, knowledge, capacity, and experiences of USAID— (i)to effectively represent USAID in interagency debate and in advancing and executing foreign policy; and (ii)to improve ultimately the effectiveness and capability of United States foreign assistance; (3)USAID must be empowered to be the primary development agency of the United States, and the Administrator must serve as the principal advisor to the President and national security organs of the United States Government on the capacity and strategy of United States development assistance; (4)the Administrator should substantially and transparently increase the total number of full-time Foreign Service Officers employed by USAID, in part by reducing the reliance on outside contractor personnel, in order to enhance the ability of the agency to— (A)carry out development activities around the world by providing USAID with additional human resources and expertise needed to meet important development and humanitarian needs around the world; (B)strengthen the institutional capacity of USAID as the lead development agency of the United States; and (C)more effectively help developing nations to become more stable, healthy, democratic, prosperous, and self-sufficient; and (5)the Administrator should submit a strategy to Congress that includes— (A)a plan to create a professional training program that will provide new and current Agency employees with technical, management, leadership, and language skills; (B)a 5-year staffing plan; (C)a description of further resources and statutory changes necessary to implement the proposed training and staffing plans; and (D)a plan to address fraud and corruption in United States development assistance and procedures to safeguard United States foreign assistance funds from going to persons or organizations that advocate or engage in acts of international terrorism.