Published in National Review by Congressman Michael Baumgartner (WA-5)

When President John F. Kennedy created the United States Agency for International Development in 1961, he did so with a spirit of optimism about America’s ability to help the needy but also with the pragmatic realization that winning a Cold War that was being fought across the globe meant fighting communist ideology with foreign development aid as well as with bullets.

Unfortunately, today, USAID has become a web of largely unaccountable bureaucrats with many questionable programs and staff that consider it more a charitable nongovernmental organization than an agency that’s meant to work on behalf of taxpayers. With a budget exceeding $40 billion, USAID does more to pad the wallets of contractor companies in the D.C. “swamp” than to effectively deliver assistance in support of U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Returning USAID to its roots, as a clearly defined arm of U.S. national security, is long overdue.

I care about international development. I studied and taught it at Harvard, lived with the Jesuits while helping refugees in Mozambique, and, with the U.S. State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan, I saw the best and the worst uses of U.S. development assistance in the fight against Islamic terrorists.

Now, as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I applaud the efforts of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to overhaul and refocus America’s foreign assistance efforts.

There have been some significant positive outcomes from recent U.S. foreign assistance. For example, the Bush administration–initiated funding for HIV prevention in Africa has saved millions of lives, and our direct food assistance has helped feed the hungry abroad while supporting American farmers at home. My alma mater, Washington State University, in partnership with USAID, has led research to develop early-warning systems for infectious diseases affecting livestock.

 

Read the full article in National Review