The history of the U.S. Agency for International Development is rarely examined or celebrated, but America’s premier foreign aid agency has evolved as Washington’s foreign policy and fiscal priorities have shifted.
Unbeknownst to many, back in the 1990s, Senator Jesse Helms and the U.S. Congress tried to abolish USAID and integrate it with the Department of State. Fending off the challenge but still battered, the agency suffered severe budget cuts, which triggered layoffs and major staff reductions through the latter part of the 1990s into the 21st century. Then 9/11 happened. Over the next decade, USAID funding more than tripled and direct hire staff increased by more than 66 percent.
“There’s some important legacies from it,” said John Norris, executive director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress and author of the bipartisan report “Engagement Amid Austerity” as well as the controversial Foreign Policy magazine article titled, “Hired Gun Fight.”
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