Hearing Wrap Up: More Accountability Mechanisms Needed to Safeguard Foreign Aid Falling into Bad Actors and Woke International Groups

WASHINGTON—The Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a hearing titled, “Accountable Assistance: Reviewing Controls to Prevent Mismanagement of Foreign Aid.” Members discussed how the Biden Administration has mismanaged the distribution of U.S. foreign aid due to a lack of accountability mechanisms and vetting controls to properly account and safeguard assistance the U.S. sends abroad. Members also discussed solutions that could be instituted to shore up gaps in the U.S. aid apparatus to limit assistance falling to bad actors, woke international organizations, and waste, fraud, and abuse.

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department (State) lack comprehensive accountability mechanisms for tracking foreign support once it departs the United States. Contractors and grantees are rarely vetted to make sure foreign assistance is not ending up in the hands of bad actors.

• Jim Richardson— Former Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the U.S. Department of State during the Trump Administration—spoke on the need for increased vetting of organizations that the U.S. partners with to distribute aid: “While coordination remains essential to ensure that efforts are not duplicated or wasted, U.S. foreign aid should be directed through partners that align most closely with our national security objectives and minimize risks. Working directly through the PIOs is inherently less transparent and accountable. Instead, we should select partners who can best accomplish the given task efficiently and effectively.”

Our current aid distribution apparatus has been used by the Biden Administration to pour taxpayer dollars into foreign countries and Public International Organizations (PIOs) that support the administration’s agenda overseas, but also conditions receipt of the aid on whether the country follows the Biden Administration’s woke domestic policies.

• Max Primorac—Senior Research Fellow at the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation—slammed the Biden Administration for their partisan-based system of aid distribution: “Our foreign aid agencies, and the industry it finances, have lost all semblance of nonpartisanship, creating hostile work environments for those who do not subscribe to their political ideology, negatively infecting agency hiring and promotion criteria, and driving away professional talent we need to counter our adversaries. Worse, foreign aid has become a global platform to transmit a radical cultural agenda to poor countries in violation of their beliefs, even conditioning desperately needed assistance on compliance. This approach is building anti-American sentiment with national security consequences.”

Member Highlights:

Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) examined how the Biden Administration has politicized foreign aid to further woke progressive ideology abroad and how PIOs are a part of the problem at the southern border.

Rep. Grothman: “Can you give me examples of how the Administration weaponizes foreign aid programs?”

Mr. Primorac: “Well I can give you an example of one project that is stunning. It’s a $45 million-dollar, five-year program to support global NGOs around the world, and I remember reading about this project and looking at the request for applications looking at a footnote. And it mentions that the inspiration for the theory working behind it was an Italian Marxist…we are literally financing a global network of anti-American, anti-Capitalist, anti-Western NGOs.”

Rep. Grothman: “Mr. Richardson, a lot of members of this body are concerned about the amount of foreign assistance we are giving around the world when we have our own crisis at the Southern Border. Can you discuss how the U.S. should be monitoring the works of Public International Organizations involved at our southern border?”

Mr. Richardson: “The bottom line is you have a lot of PIOs of the UN family organizations that are providing billions of dollars to NGOs to help migrants make the journey north.”

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) asked the expert witnesses point blank if the Biden Administration has a handle on safeguarding U.S. foreign aid.

Rep. Fallon: “Do you feel that the Biden Administration has done a good job in conducting the oversight of this aid?”

Mr. Primorac: “Across the board I would say no, unfortunately.”

Mr. Richardson: “No.”

Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.) asked what can be done to increase communication between federal agencies to ensure efficient use of U.S. foreign aid.

Rep. LaTurner: “There are over 20 U.S. agencies engaged in our foreign assistance efforts. What can we do to ensure that our efforts among these agencies are strategically aligned and coordinated to maximize the impact and efficiency?”

Mr. Richardson: “As you mentioned there’s over 20 federal government agencies responsible for foreign assistance…they are all currently operating in a complete stove-type manner, and it is supposed to be coordinated at the post. So it is supposed to be coordinated by the Ambassador at the particular mission. The problem is it doesn’t happen that way…you really need to centralize it and have a director of foreign assistance who is actually accountable, can bring all the foreign assistance agencies together, and be very clear about what we are trying to accomplish.”

CLICK HERE to watch the hearing.