[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 168 (Tuesday, November 10, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S11334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        EMPOWERING THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was pleased to join with Senators Dodd, 
Cardin, Bond, Kerry, Lugar, and many others in passing a resolution on 
the need to empower and strengthen the U.S. Agency for International 
Development.
  The resolution calls for three important steps--that a USAID 
Administrator be named without delay, that such Administrator be 
included in key national security deliberations, and that USAID's 
staffing and expertise be significantly increased.
  Development assistance is part of any comprehensive American approach 
in foreign policy, whether it responds to regional conflicts, terrorist 
threats, weapons proliferation, disease pandemics, or persistent 
widespread poverty. Assistance programs not only provide help to those 
most in need but also are a symbol of American values.
  Our own security depends on the stability of far-flung places beyond 
our borders. And America's generosity and ability to help other 
countries is becoming more important to the effectiveness of our 
foreign policy.
  In the United States, the responsibility for development falls 
largely to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
  USAID was founded by the Kennedy administration in 1961, becoming the 
first U.S. foreign assistance organization with the primary goal of 
long term economic and social development efforts overseas.
  During its first decade, it had more than 5,000 Foreign Service 
officers serving all over the world, often in the most difficult of 
conditions.
  Today--at a time when the United States is engaged in two wars and 
needs development expertise more than ever--USAID operates with just 
1,000 Foreign Service officers. USAID's managed program budget in real 
dollars has dropped by more than 40 percent since the mid-1980s. And 
the Agency still does not have an Administrator.
  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. 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 U.S. Government 
agencies.
  This decline in personnel, budgets and coordinating leadership has 
diminished the capacity of USAID and the U.S. Government to provide 
development assistance and implement foreign assistance programs.
  Quite simply, as the United States works to win hearts and minds 
around the world, our efforts have been diminished by an underfunded 
and understaffed lead development agency. USAID has been shortchanged--
and America's efforts abroad have suffered as a result.
  Secretaries Clinton and Gates both recognize the need to reverse this 
trend.
  During her first month as Secretary of State, Clinton told USAID 
employees, ``I believe in development, and I believe with all my heart 
that it truly is an equal partner, along with defense and diplomacy, in 
the furtherance of America's national security.''
  Secretary of Defense Gates has made a similar case, stating ``The 
problem is that the civil side of our government--the Foreign Service 
and foreign-policy side, including our aid for international 
development--[has] been systematically starved of resources for a 
quarter of a century or more . . . We have not provided the resources 
necessary, first of all, for our diplomacy around the world; and 
second, for communicating to the rest of the world what we are about 
and who we are as a people.''
  Military and civilian experts agree that the wars in Iran and 
Afghanistan will only succeed in the long term with a sustained and 
strategic development program to compliment military efforts. We owe it 
to the brave men and women serving in those nations to get this piece 
of our foreign policy right and to so without delay.
  That is why earlier this year I introduced the Increasing America's 
Global Development Capacity Act, which calls for a tripling of USAID's 
Foreign Service personnel over the next 3 years. The bill seeks to 
address the considerable personnel loss that USAID has experienced over 
the course of the last two decades. I have also worked with Senator 
Leahy to help appropriate additional funds for USAID.
  And that is why I was pleased to support Senator Dodd's resolution 
expressing the Senate's view that we must rebuild USAID, starting with 
the urgent naming of an empowered Administrator, inclusion of that 
designee in top-level national security deliberations, and continued 
long-term investment in USAID staffing and funding. I thank the Senate 
for adopting this important resolution yesterday.

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