United States legislators on both sides of the aisle, who have powers to approve U.S. foreign aid spending, will be asking searching questions about whether closing the U.S. Agency for International Development, transferring its functions to the State Department, and cutting U.S. aid spending will bolster American foreign policy objectives. Some of these include securing U.S. borders by stopping illegal migration, combatting terrorism, and ending conflict. Will the shake-up strengthen America’s power, influence, and reputation? Will it make America great again?
The United Kingdom, which like the U.S. is a large aid donor, merged its stand-alone Department for International Development with its Foreign Office in 2020 to create the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, and then rapidly cut its aid spending. As a commissioner of the U.K.’s independent aid watchdog, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, from 2019 to 2024, I examined these changes. We reported in 2023 that: “The merger brought much disruption but so far only a few specific gains, while the budget reductions damaged the UK’s reputation.”
Here are seven questions, drawing on U.K. experience, which U.S. legislators might ask during congressional oversight hearings:
About the author
Hugh Bayley
Hugh Bayley was a U.K. minister and member of Parliament for 23 years. As president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, he joined Republican and Democrat members of Congress to lobby more than 100 congressional colleagues to rescind motions calling for the U.S. to disengage from Europe. After leaving Parliament, he was a commissioner of the U.K.’s Independent Commission for Aid Impact from 2019 to 2024.
