Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator and Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) Chris Coons (D-Del.) held a hearing yesterday to review the fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID Administrator Samantha Power was the witness.
As SFOPS Chair, Senator Coons continues to lead efforts to make critical investments that will advance American security and prosperity in an increasingly complex world. In today’s hearing, he discussed the importance of funding for USAID as it plays a lead role in addressing population displacement, food insecurity, democratic backsliding, a global economic crisis, and many other challenges, while working to seize opportunities to advance U.S. interests.
A video and transcript of Senator Coons’ opening remarks are available below.
Full audio and video available here.
Senator Chris Coons: I call this hearing to order. Today, the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and Related Programs of the Senate Appropriations Committee meets to review the fiscal year 2024 budget request for the United States Agency for International Development, and we are honored to have Administrator Samantha Power with us. Administrator Power, it is always an honor and a privilege to have you before us. We have a lot to cover. You have a lot going on and a lot of responsibilities, and so we appreciate your making yourself available. It is unfortunate that we have two – at least two – other compelling hearings on similar or related topics. So, please be understanding that a number of our colleagues intend to come in and out. I am grateful that the Vice Chair of the full committee, my friend and colleague from Maine, Susan Collins [R], is serving as the Ranking [Member] for this hearing and will help open the hearing. I know that the Ranking Member of this subcommittee, Senator [Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.], will join us in just a few minutes.
The FY24 request for this subcommittee’s budget, including staff and programs of State, [US]AID, MCC [Millennium Challenge Corporation], DFC [U.S. International Development Finance Corporation], and other agencies, is in total $68.6 billion. $6.8 billion, or 11% above the FY 23 enacted level — still not even one penny on the dollar of U.S. defense spending. If you include the supplemental funding that was provided in ’23 to address Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the FY 24 request would actually be a 15% cut over the overall expenditures. So, with this relatively modest funding, Administrator Power, you’re being asked to confront an historic confluence of complex global challenges: a record number of refugees and internally displaced persons, more than 100 million people forcibly uprooted; food insecurity steadily on the rise, with an expected 345 million people projected to experience intense food insecurity this year — more than double the level just three years ago; sustained democratic backsliding, marked by corruption and increased repression; a global debt crisis amongst the poorer countries coming out of COVID-19; economic competition and coercion from authoritarian actors like the PRC [People’s Republic of China]; and while we continue to focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there are many other humanitarian crises around the world: Horn of Africa, the Sahel, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, and many others.
USAID is tasked with a leading role in the U.S. government’s response to these many challenges, which is also critical to bolstering U.S. national security, our reputation, and our place in the world. I am grateful for the service of all the development professionals at USAID, whom I’ve had the opportunity to visit in a dozen countries just in the last few months. I am proud of the work we have done here on a bipartisan basis on this subcommittee and full committee to help you better grow, equip, and support USAID’s workforce, to apply lessons learned from your predecessors, and adapt the agency to strengthen locally led development and cooperation with the American private sector. I know we have a lot more to do together.
I look forward to hearing from you this morning about your proposals for how we can best leverage our development tools to advance our national interests; how you define those interests; where does USAID fit in; and what are you doing to better tell the story globally of USAID’s vital work. I’ll say to you at the outset what I said in our previous hearing to Secretary [Antony] Blinken: Your task is daunting, and this subcommittee must both rigorously oversee your work and ensure you have the support and resources you need to protect and advance our national security and our national values. You cannot be asked to do more with less. That’s why I’m encouraged by the FY24 budget request for your agency and the rest of the State and Foreign Operations budget, as the challenges of our time demand bold investments. Thank you, Administrator Power, for joining us. I look forward to your testimony, and I’ll now turn to Vice Chair Collins.
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