Kerry on US Development Investments: Doing More with Less

The $52 billion FY2014 international affairs budget request is a small investment with big returns for the United States and the world, Secretary of State John Kerry said in congressional hearings last week.  The request is the same amount Congress allocated in FY2013 and a four percent cut from FY2012. Kerry told members of Congress that the State Department and USAID are prepared to do more with less.

During his eight-plus hours of testimony, Kerry answered national security and foreign policy questions on everything from Pakistan to US trade with Africa.  On the overall development approach, he said:  

When it comes to shoring up our economic health and protecting our national security, I believe our development work is one of our strongest assets. So let me be clear; development is not charity, it's an investment... Eleven of our top 15 trading partners were once beneficiaries of U.S. foreign assistance. You just can't afford to pull back from what that lesson tells us. South Korea, that I was just in, 15 years ago was an aid recipient. Today, it's giving aid around the world. That doesn't mean we can't work in better, more efficient ways.

Kerry added that US development investment are just "one penny on the American taxpayer dollar" and said the FY2014 budget request aims to get an even better return including through an overhaul of US food aid.  Secretary Kerry also hinted at contracting reforms in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  (My colleague Sarah Jane Staats mentions some of the other ways the administration proposes doing more with less in the FY14 budget.)

I’ll be listening to hear more about these reforms (and others?) during the next round of FY14 budget hearings with Rajiv Shah from USAID, Daniel Yohannes from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and Jacob Lew from the Department of Treasure (see schedule below). 

Wednesday, 4/24

10:00 am
Rajiv Shah, USAID
Senate Foreign Relations Committee

1:30 pm
Rajiv Shah, USAID
House Appropriations Committee

Thursday, 4/25