The debate over who will oversee U.S. foreign aid appears to be heating once more, Washington Post columnist Al Kamen notes. He adds that upcoming discussions “could be bloody.”
Al Kamen got wind of a July 2 e-mail that the State Department circulated among its staff. The e-mail pointed out a “major problem” in the preliminary draft of a foreign assistance reform proposal authored by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), according to Kamen.
The e-mail cited a clause in the bill that calls for “a committee of 15 participants, which include the Secretary of State only as a co-equal member as opposed to placing her as the lead, as had been earlier requested; and others do not vest authorities in the Secretary, as had been requested for comparable provisions.”
Kamen suggests that the State Department wants it secretary to lead the committee.
According to Kamen, several development groups see this view to be inconsistent with President Barack Obama’s new approach to development. At the recent G-8 summit in Canada, Obama stressed that “development, diplomacy, and defense are components of a comprehensive, integrated approach to the challenges we face today.”
The Pentagon, meanwhile, Kamen reports, “wants out of the development business because that’s not what it does.”
Kamen adds: “So the question, which apparently the White House will resolve, is whether development is going to be a distinct, though coordinated, function. That is, who’s going to be in charge of development out in the field.”
Obama is likely to make several hard structural decisions, he concludes.
