Evening star., 1961-05-21
Social, Fiscal
Reforms Key
NeWAid Plan
BY JACK BELL
Associated Press Staff Writer

President Kennedy will sub
NIT to Congress soon a dras-
tically overhauled mutual as
sistance program aimed at CIV
ing single-package economic
aid to countries which pledge
social and fiscal reforms.
Disclosing this yesterday,
Senator Humphrey, Democrat
of Minnesota. said in an inter-
view Mr.. Kennedy plans to set
up a new three-phase develop
ment assistance agency to deal
with food, capital investment
and human resource assistance.
The new agency would be
headed by a director, with the
rank of Undersecretary of
State. Presumably Henry r.
Labouisse, who now directs the
International Cooperation Ad-
ministration, would step into
this job.
To Avoid Waste
Senator Humphrey said the
new approach sis designed to
eliminate the duplication and
waste that have marked our
assistance programs in the
past. It is also designed to quit
giving money to nations where
the ruling hierarchy steals it.
We are going to quit supporting
corruption"
Under the Forthcoming Ken
nedy proposal, Senator Hum
phrey said each country would
have a single economic aid
program and a program direc-
tor who would work with, but
not under, the American Am
baSsador.
Senator Humphrey, the as
sistant Senate majority leader.
has been working closely with
executive officials in drafting
the program. He said he be-
lieves that because it is aimed
primarily at getting aid directly
to the people it will receive a
sympathetic hearing in a Con-
gress increasingly critical Of
programs as they have been
administered in the past.
NeutralS Included
Senator Humphrey said he
had insisted that the program
require certain commitments
fro mthe recipient countries.
This reverses the previous pol
icy of avoiding any United
States intrusion into internal
affairs of these countries.
II am sure that Congress is
going to insist on making our
aid conditional on the pledge
of the recipients that they will
take steps to make social and
fiscal reforms and see to it
that the assistance gets down
to the people themselves" Sen
ator Humphrey said.
AS it now stands, he said,
the program will not be limited
to allied countries but will
make aid available to neutrals
land even to some countries
that are insulting to us at
times" He added:
The criterion is going to be:
Is the aid going to be used in
a way that helps the people?"
AS the program has been
drafted, the new agency would
take over operation of the
Development Loan Fund. all
of the functions Of the ICA. the
Food-for-Peace project and the
disposal Of agricultural sur
pluses abroad.
Cash sales Of surplus COM
modities to other nations would
be left under the Department
Of Agriculture. The Export Inn
port Bank would operate in
dependently of the new agency,
but would be expected to coor-
dinate its policies with 1t.
Senator Humphrey said the
human resource assistance pro-
gram would cover technical as
sistance, health, education and
land reform projects.
Although the original plan
had been to divorce military
from economic aid, Senator
Humphrey said this had been
abandoned because 1t was felt
that economic assistance pro-
posals would fare badly in Con-
gress unless they were linked
with the military aid.