III 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 312 

Expressing the sense of the Senate on empowering and strengthening the 

United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 13, 2009 

Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. BOND, Mr. BURRIS, 

Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mr. KERRY, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. KIRK, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. VOINOVICH, Mr. FEINGOLD, Mr. CASEY, Mr. 

MERKLEY, Mr. LUGAR, Mr. LEAHY, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. LAUTENBERG, 

and Mrs. BOXER) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

NOVEMBER 9, 2009 

Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate on empowering and 

strengthening the United States Agency for International 

Development (USAID). 

Whereas foreign development assistance is an important foreign policy tool in addition to diplomacy and the military; 

Whereas the United States is currently involved in two wars, 

both of which military and civilian experts agree can only 

be solved with sound development strategies to complement military efforts; 


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Whereas development assistance is part of any comprehensive 

United States response to regional conflicts, terrorist 

threats, weapons proliferation, disease pandemics, and 

persistent widespread poverty; 

Whereas in 2002 and 2006, the United States National Security Strategy included global development, along with the 

military and diplomacy, as the three pillars of national 

security; 

Whereas in its early years, the United States Agency for 

International Development (USAID) had more than 

5,000 full-time Foreign Service Officers and 15,000 total 

staff; 

Whereas in 2008, USAID had slightly more than 1,000 fulltime Foreign Service Officers and 3,000 total staff; 

Whereas the loss in permanent staff and institutional expertise at USAID has compelled it to rely disproportionally 

on outside contractors to help manage programs in more 

than 150 countries; 

Whereas from the early 1960s until 1992, the Office of Management and Budget enforced a rule mandating that all 

foreign aid programs and spending must go through 

USAID, except when USAID chose to contract with 

other Federal agencies; 

Whereas today more than half of all foreign assistance programs are administered by Federal agencies other than 

USAID, and funding for such programs is spread across 

more than 20 United States Government agencies; and 

Whereas this decline in personnel, budgets, and coordinating 

leadership has diminished the capacity of USAID and the 

United States Government to provide development assistVerDate Nov 24 2008 21:39 Nov 16, 2009 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR312.ATS SR312

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ance and implement foreign assistance programs: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 

2 (1) a highly capable and knowledgeable indi3 vidual should be nominated with all expediency and 

4 exigency to serve as the Administrator of the United 

5 States Agency for International Development; 

6 (2) the Administrator should— 

7 (A) serve as the chief advocate for United 

8 States development capacity and strategy in 

9 top-level national security deliberations; 

10 (B) serve as a powerful advocate and effec11 tive leader of an empowered USAID; and 

12 (C) marshal the resources, knowledge, ca13 pacity, and experiences of USAID— 

14 (i) to effectively represent USAID in 

15 interagency debate and in advancing and 

16 executing foreign policy; and 

17 (ii) to improve ultimately the effective18 ness and capability of United States for19 eign assistance; 

20 (3) USAID must be empowered to be the pri21 mary development agency of the United States, and 

22 the Administrator must serve as the principal advi23 sor to the President and national security organs of 


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1 the United States Government on the capacity and 

2 strategy of United States development assistance; 

3 (4) the Administrator should substantially and 

4 transparently increase the total number of full-time 

5 Foreign Service Officers employed by USAID, in 

6 part by reducing the reliance on outside contractor 

7 personnel, in order to enhance the ability of the 

8 agency to— 

9 (A) carry out development activities 

10 around the world by providing USAID with ad11 ditional human resources and expertise needed 

12 to meet important development and humani13 tarian needs around the world; 

14 (B) strengthen the institutional capacity of 

15 USAID as the lead development agency of the 

16 United States; and 

17 (C) more effectively help developing na18 tions to become more stable, healthy, demo19 cratic, prosperous, and self-sufficient; and 

20 (5) the Administrator should submit a strategy 

21 to Congress that includes— 

22 (A) a plan to create a professional training 

23 program that will provide new and current 

24 Agency employees with technical, management, 

25 leadership, and language skills; 


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1 (B) a 5-year staffing plan; 

2 (C) a description of further resources and 

3 statutory changes necessary to implement the 

4 proposed training and staffing plans; and 

5 (D) a plan to address fraud and corruption 

6 in United States development assistance and 

7 procedures to safeguard United States foreign 

8 assistance funds from going to persons or orga9 nizations that advocate or engage in acts of 

10 international terrorism. 

Æ 


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