Gayle Smith, U.S. President Barack Obama’s nominee for administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today in the beginning of what some worry will be a drawn out and combative Congressional confirmation process.
Potential partisan wrangling over Smith’s foreign policy record — or Congress’ sometimes sluggish pace when confirming nominees — could slow things down. Partisanship and bureaucracy notwithstanding, with only a week and a half remaining in the current Congressional session and only 15 months left under the current administration, many in the development community worry that time may not be on Smith’s side.
“The confirmation process has been slow and sticky but now it’s really tick tock,” Nancy Lindborg, president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, told Devex.
About the author
Molly Andersmollyanders_dev
Molly Anders is a former U.K. correspondent for Devex. Based in London, she reports on development finance trends with a focus on British and European institutions. She is especially interested in evidence-based development and women’s economic empowerment, as well as innovative financing for the protection of migrants and refugees. Molly is a former Fulbright Scholar and studied Arabic in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco.
