{ "id": "RL34243", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RL34243", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 343476, "date": "2009-01-27", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:51:12.339942", "title": "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options", "summary": "Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the role of foreign assistance as a tool of foreign policy has come into sharper focus. The President 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. At the same time that foreign aid is being recognized as playing an important role in U.S. foreign policy, it has also come under closer scrutiny by Congress, largely in response to a number of presidential initiatives, and by critics who argue that the U.S. foreign aid infrastructure is cumbersome and fragmented, and that aid policy is unfocused.\nIn recent years, several initiatives have heightened congressional interest in, and caused a re-examination of, U.S. foreign assistance policy and programs, including organizational structure. In January 2006, Secretary of State Rice announced an initiative to bring coordination and coherence to U.S. aid programs. The Secretary created a new State Department position\u2014Director of Foreign Assistance (DFA)\u2014the occupant of which serves concurrently as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). A new Bureau of Foreign Assistance (F) was created to coordinate assistance programs, led by the DFA, who in 2006, developed a Strategic Framework for Foreign Assistance to align U.S. aid programs with strategic objectives. The Framework guided the writing of the FY2008 and FY2009 budgets, and is expected to be reflected in the FY2010 budget request.\nU.S. foreign aid programs began in earnest with the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe following World War II. Arguably, the underlying rationale for aid during most of the post-war period was to counter Communist influence in the world. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and particularly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, aid programs have increasingly been justified within the context of anti-terrorism. Despite changing global conditions and challenges, U.S. foreign aid programs, their organizational structure, and their statutory underpinnings, reflect the Cold War environment in which they originated.\nThese factors are, arguably, motivating the heightened interest in re-evaluating how U.S. aid programs function, and in revamping how they are administered. There is also a growing recognition of the role that foreign assistance can play as a foreign policy tool that is equal to the role of diplomacy and defense within the current international environment characterized by regional conflicts, terrorist threats, weapons proliferation, concerns with disease pandemics, and the difficulty in overcoming poverty. As a result, a number of recent high-profile studies have made recommendations for specific reforms.\nThis report, written by Connie Veillette, a former CRS Specialist, will be updated by Susan Epstein to reflect continuing developments.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL34243", "sha1": "d57707eaa91a210d31b985342a397e49d61775e3", "filename": "files/20090127_RL34243_d57707eaa91a210d31b985342a397e49d61775e3.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL34243", "sha1": "0cf899f99a84ed76443e2409aaa80d325b1ccd9e", "filename": "files/20090127_RL34243_0cf899f99a84ed76443e2409aaa80d325b1ccd9e.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc807521/", "id": "RL34243_2008Jul17", "date": "2008-07-17", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080717_RL34243_d6812f83a63b4e959c61dc00c2ea1405a1845761.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080717_RL34243_d6812f83a63b4e959c61dc00c2ea1405a1845761.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc700881/", "id": "RL34243_2008Apr22", "date": "2008-04-22", "retrieved": "2015-08-27T16:20:31", "title": "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options", "summary": "This report discusses the role of foreign assistance as a tool of foreign policy. There is also a growing recognition of the role that foreign assistance can play as a foreign policy tool that is equal to the role of diplomacy and defense within the current international environment characterized by regional conflicts, terrorist threats, weapons proliferation, concerns with disease pandemics, and the difficulty in overcoming poverty.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080422_RL34243_f6eb85e0d7232d84e8786c17d7ed298cf0e92f82.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080422_RL34243_f6eb85e0d7232d84e8786c17d7ed298cf0e92f82.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign policy", "name": "Foreign policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "American economic assistance", "name": "American economic assistance" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign aid", "name": "Foreign aid" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "International affairs", "name": "International affairs" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc813332/", "id": "RL34243_2008Jan17", "date": "2008-01-17", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080117_RL34243_f407e9f1ed125b450bf8c15c3dcae8466c77618c.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080117_RL34243_f407e9f1ed125b450bf8c15c3dcae8466c77618c.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc820295/", "id": "RL34243_2007Nov07", "date": "2007-11-07", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Foreign Aid Reform: Issues for Congress and Policy Options", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20071107_RL34243_a01f8c66563f6276512e0b48be18bad8e10f5ef7.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20071107_RL34243_a01f8c66563f6276512e0b48be18bad8e10f5ef7.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Foreign Affairs", "Intelligence and National Security", "National Defense" ] }