U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday called for more transparency in the Department of State’s grantmaking but struggled to weigh that desire against the need to protect the identities of human rights defenders in restrictive environments.
In a House foreign affairs subcommittee hearing, Republican lawmakers repeatedly cherry-picked individual grants that they found objectionable — a canceled drag show in Ecuador, support for religious nonbelievers in Nepal — to paint the U.S. government’s entire approach to foreign assistance as wasteful and counterproductive. Former State Department officials from both political parties were called to testify.
Republicans faced pushback from Democrats who argued that the U.S. government’s human rights grants are critical in the global contest between democracy and autocracy and that if lawmakers limit their focus to stamping out programs they do not like, it will undermine any “freedom and flexibility” the State Department requires to do meaningful work.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
