LegiStorm

Summary:

Both the 111th Congress and the Obama Administration have expressed interest in foreign aid reform and are looking at ways to improve and strengthen the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), coordination among implementing agencies, and monitoring effectiveness of aid activities. Legislation containing elements of reform includes H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011; H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009; and S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization Accountability Act of 2009. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the role of foreign assistance as a tool of U.S. foreign policy has come into sharper focus. President George W. Bush elevated global development as a third pillar of national security, with defense and diplomacy, as articulated in the U.S. National Security Strategy of 2002, and reiterated in 2006. In January 2006, Secretary of State Rice announced the "transformational development" initiative to bring coordination and coherence to U.S. aid programs. She created a new Bureau of Foreign Assistance (F Bureau), led by the Director of Foreign Assistance (DFA), who also serves as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. F Bureau developed a Strategic Framework for Foreign Assistance (Framework, or F process) to align aid programs with strategic objectives. The Framework became a guiding force in the FY2008 and FY2009 budgets, as well as the FY2010 budget request. In recent years, numerous studies have addressed various concerns and provided recommendations regarding U.S. foreign aid policy, funding, and structure. Views range from general approval of the F process as a first step toward better coordination of aid programs and the need to build on it, to strong criticism of the creation of the F Bureau, its inadequacy in coordinating or reforming much of what is wrong with foreign aid, and the need to replace it with a cabinet-level department of foreign aid. While the 14 studies surveyed by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) emphasize different aspects of the importance of U.S. foreign assistance, all agree that foreign assistance must be reformed to improve its effectiveness. Of the 16 recommendation categories CRS identifies, only enhancing civilian agency resources has the support of all of the studies covered in this report. The next two most-often cited recommendations are raising development to equal status with diplomacy and defense, and increasing needs-based foreign aid, while encouraging recipient-government ownership of aid effectiveness. Half of the studies urge a greater congressional role in foreign aid budgeting and policy formulation. Because these studies were written for the purpose of reforming U.S. foreign aid, it is not surprising that none of them recommends maintaining the status quo. Given the current economic crisis and budget constraints along with other major concerns, such as health care, energy policy, and global warming, however, some Members of Congress may prefer a continuation of the existing foreign aid structure. This report is a review of selected studies written between 2001 and 2008. For related information on foreign aid and foreign affairs budgets, see CRS Report R40693, State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2010 Budget and Appropriations, by Susan B. Epstein, Kennon H. Nakamura, and Marian Leonardo Lawson.