New legislation introduced Tuesday in the U.S. Congress seeks to protect the U.S. Agency for International Development amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle and defund the agency.
The Protect U.S. National Security Act would require that any reform or reorganization of USAID be done in accordance with existing laws, and in a manner that maintains U.S. soft power and prevents adversaries and competitors from filling the void. It reiterates that only an act of Congress can eliminate USAID.
The bill also prohibits any funding from being used to eliminate USAID as an independent agency, dismantle it, or have it be subsumed by another department. It would also require that the secretary of state certify annually, for the next five years, that it was complying with the law.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
