The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation must be reauthorized by October, and lawmakers launched the process in this Congress with a hearing on Tuesday that offered a glimpse of something rare these days on Capitol Hill: bipartisanship.
DFC, which finances private sector development solutions, was founded in 2019 and given a seven-year mandate, which expires in October. The agency, however, may need to slow operations even sooner because it has invested nearly $50 billion of its $60 billion lending cap. Last year, DFC committed more than $12 billion across 181 transactions, with about 70% directed to low-income or lower-middle-income countries.
Reauthorization discussions to date have recommended at least doubling DFC’s lending ability to $120 billion, if not increasing it further.