Small Wars Journal

Report Recommends Consolidating State Department Foreign Aid Programs Under USAID

Wed, 09/06/2017 - 9:04am

Report Recommends Consolidating State Department Foreign Aid Programs Under USAID by Karen DeYoung - Washington Post

The latest in a series of high-level reports and recommendations for revamping the State Department proposes expanding the size and mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development to encompass all U.S. assistance now spread across dozens of diplomatic, civilian and military agencies.

The report, by 10 former senior officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations, was requested last year by Congress and compiled under the auspices of the Atlantic Council. It is to be formally released Wednesday.

Drawing a sharp distinction between the policy and diplomatic functions of the State Department and the operational tasks of USAID, the report calls for maintaining the aid agency as an independent body that will integrate and coordinate all U.S. foreign assistance, including that increasingly undertaken by the military outside of direct combat operations…

Among proposals currently under consideration by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are some calling for fully integrating USAID within the State Department. ­Others include transferring some of State’s functions to other departments, such as moving State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Atlantic Council report suggests it and other functions across the government be placed within an expanded USAID, which would remain an independent entity under State’s authority…

Read on.