Senate Passes USAID Resolution
On Monday, November 9th, the Senate passed a non-binding resolution (S. Res. 312) calling on the Administration to fill the USAID Administrator position as quickly as possible. Today, the President nominated Dr. Rajiv Shah to be the Administrator. The resolution also called on the Administration to empower USAID to be the primary development agency of the United States. The resolution was passed by voice vote and comes just before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is preparing to mark-up legislation to strengthen USAID next week.
S.1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Sens. Kerry (D-MA), Lugar (R-IN), Menendez (D-NJ), and Corker (R-TN), would strengthen the capacity, transparency, and accountability of USAID by establishing an Assistant Administrator for Policy and Strategic Planning and create a Bureau for Policy and Strategic Planning, and also establish an independent Council on Research and Evaluation of Foreign Assistance, whose primary responsibility would be to review and evaluate development programs across the entire federal government.
