Lawmakers support Bush plan for more foreign aid, but debate details
Members of a House subcommittee Wednesday expressed enthusiasm for a Bush administration plan to dramatically increase the amount of foreign aid for the world's poorest countries, but also expressed concern over the criteria that the administration has proposed to determine which countries get the new resources.
Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Democratic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology Subcommittee, said that her Millennium Challenge Account Act would implement Bush's plan. It would set up a new Millennium Challenge Corporation to oversee the dispersal of the funds, as endorsed by the Bush administration. But she said the House bill would deviate from the Bush plan in including the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development on an oversight board at the new corporation. The board would also include the secretaries of the State and Treasury, as well as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The bill would give the corporation $1.3 billion to distribute in 2004, and the agency's foreign aid budget would rise to $5 billion over three years, Harris said. The increase would be in addition to existing foreign aid distributed by the Agency for International Development, and by the Health and Human Services Department. AID Administrator Andrew Natsios told the subcommittee that the new funding-if approved by Congress-would be the largest increase in foreign aid since the 1947 Marshall Plan.
The plan would also significantly alter the way that foreign aid is distributed. Only the poorest countries in the world would be eligible to receive assistance. The Millennium Challenge Corporation would judge each country on its commitment to fighting corruption while advancing economic development, democracy and human rights. Only countries with solid track records in each category would be chosen.
Members of the panel questioned the criteria for inclusion in the program. Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., said he believed that respect for property rights should be stressed in the criteria, while Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., argued that human rights should rank more highly. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said that the countries should also be judged on how helpful they are to the United States in combating terrorism.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., meanwhile, objected strongly to the Bush administration's plan to free the new corporation from contracting rules that require federal agencies to dole out a certain amount of business to minority and women-owned businesses.
The House International Relations Committee will mark up the Millennium Challenge Account Act on Thursday.