The United Republic of Tanzania is an East African country of nearly 54 million people that is about twice as large as California. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates it to have been the 31 st -poorest country globally in 2016 when ranked by per capita gross domestic product (GDP), which stood at $970 in 2016. The country has substantial natural resource wealth and agricultural potential, however, and multiple socioeconomic development indicators have generally improved in recent years. Its relative political stability and government reforms have attracted substantial official development aid, although there are abiding concerns regarding corruption and a difficult business climate. Despite such challenges, some sectors of the economy, most notably the extractive industries, are attracting private investment. President John Magufuli was elected in 2015 and is serving his first five-year term in office. U.S.-Tanzanian ties have generally been cordial and U.S. aid expanded significantly under the last two U.S. Administrations. Since the 2015 elections, however, U.S. concerns about Tanzania's governance have raised some tensions. Such concerns have centered on the nullification of the 2015 election results (and the subsequent rerun in 2016) in the semiautonomous coastal region of Zanzibar, restrictions on civil liberties, and similar issues. Citing such concerns, in March 2016, the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board announced it would suspend its partnership with Tanzania, deferring a vote on the country's continued eligibility for a potential second large development compact; this effectively ended, for the time being, the development of a second MCC compact with Tanzania, following its completion of an initial compact between 2008 and 2013. The MCC had previously authorized and helped fund initial research and concept design activities focused on the development of a second compact, which had been expected to center on the electrical power sector—and in mid-2015 had informed Congress of its intent to negotiate such a compact Tanzania. These developments ran counter to a prior narrative of improving governance and economic development in Tanzania and closer U.S. ties, underscored by former President Obama's July 2013 visit to the country, during which he highlighted such progress, as well as growing U.S. trade and investment ties. Despite the later tensions, the Obama Administration described bilateral ties as being characterized by a "strong" partnership focused on a "shared vision of improving the quality of life for all Tanzanians" in its FY2017 State Department/U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) foreign aid budget submission to Congress. How bilateral ties may proceed under the Trump Administration and during the 115 th Congress has yet to be determined, but they appear likely to remain on a positive track. An April 26, 2017, press release issued under the name of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson characterized the U.S.-Tanzanian relationship as "strong," and "marked by a collaborative effort toward shared goals and close cooperation on a variety of programs and initiatives, from health and education, promoting economic growth and democratic governance, and advancing regional security," and projected similar trends in the future. Tanzania may also benefit from the fact that Mark Green, the new USAID Administrator, is a former U.S. ambassador to the country (2007 to 2009). In recent years, Tanzania has been the second- or third-largest annual recipient of such aid in sub-Saharan Africa, with funding reaching a high of $634.1 million in FY2015 and a low of $546.6 million in FY2017 (provisional current estimate; see Table 1 ). The Trump Administration has requested $535 million for Tanzania in FY2018, the second-highest level requested for a country in the region and a minimal 2% drop relative to the current FY2017 estimate for Tanzania. This decrease would be modest compared to the roughly one-third decrease in overall global aid levels proposed by the Trump Administration. The bulk of U.S. development aid for Tanzania in recent years has been provided under Obama Administration presidential development initiatives, including Feed the Future (FTF), the Global Health Initiative, the Global Climate Change Initiative, Power Africa, and Trade Africa. In 2014 Tanzania was selected as one of six initial partner countries under the Obama Administration's African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership (APRRP). It was also chosen to be a Partnership for Growth (PFG) country, one of four worldwide. (See assistance section, below, for more on these efforts.) While most U.S. aid has focused on health and economic growth, bilateral security cooperation has also increased. Tanzania is a top African contributor of personnel to international peacekeeping operations. While there is generally little Tanzania-focused congressional activity or legislation, some Members of Congress occasionally travel to the country and periodically host visits from Tanzanian leaders, such as that of former President Jakaya Kikwete during the August 2014 U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Some Members have sponsored legislation advocating protections for albinos, who are the target of attacks, as discussed below. Tanzania, formed in 1964, is a union of Tanganyika, the mainland territory, which gained independence from Britain in 1961, and the Zanzibar archipelago. Zanzibar, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1963, remains semiautonomous, with its own government. Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's president from 1964 until 1985, remained influential until his death in 1999. Under Nyerere, Tanzania was governed as a socialist state, but maintained cordial, albeit sometimes tepid relations with the West. Nyerere advanced a set of national social policies known collectively as ujamaa ("socialism" in Swahili, the lingua franca), which centered on rural, village-based collectivism and self-reliance and the nationalization of key industries. U jamaa had a decidedly mixed record. At a national level, central state control of economic policy failed to spur transformative growth and industrialization and inhibited market-based economic transaction efficiencies and private sector growth, while at the village level, collectivization faced increasing resistance. Such factors, together with a range of global ones (e.g., the oil crisis of the 1970s and poor commodity prices for Tanzania's core agricultural exports) led the country to seek credit and technical cooperation with international financial institutions in the mid-1980s. This led to the gradual liberalization of the economy and later of the state. In contrast to the economic effects of ujamaa , Nyerere's leadership and policies are widely seen as having united an ethnically and religiously diverse population under a strong shared national identity. His leadership, by many accounts, spared the mainland from the ethnic tensions that have inhibited national unity or destabilized some other African countries. Zanzibar, however, has experienced some internal ethnic and religious frictions. Since the mid-1990s, successive governments have taken steps to further liberalize the economy, but Tanzania's business environment remains challenging, due, in part, to the enduring effects of state-centric policies and bureaucratization during the socialist period. A 2016 State Department assessment observed that "in certain sectors the legacy of socialist attitudes has not fully dissipated, sometimes resulting in suspicion of foreign investors and slow decision making." Despite a stated commitment to reform, corruption and poor service delivery have hampered Tanzania's efforts to curb widespread poverty and reduce reliance on subsistence agriculture. As is common in the region, Tanzania's aging infrastructure has suffered from chronic underinvestment. Nevertheless, the Obama Administration viewed the Tanzanian government as committed to development and governance reform, and provided substantial aid to spur progress in these areas, and to invest in infrastructure. Tanzania's ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Swahili for Party of the Revolution), was created by Nyerere in 1977 through the merger of the ruling parties of the mainland and Zanzibar. It has dominated Tanzanian politics since its inception, a key point of criticism by opposition parties. In the first multiparty elections in 1995, the CCM won a landslide victory in voting marred by irregularities. The party has continued to enjoy considerable electoral success on the mainland, in part due to the powers of incumbency, but opposition parties have won a growing share of legislative seats in successive elections. Still, opposition parties reportedly face periodic harassment and de facto restrictions on their activities. Increased political pluralism may distribute political power more widely, but it may also hold the potential to spur increasing ethnic, regional, and/or religious divisions, which the CCM long sought to avert. Recent years have seen a rise in the harassment of opposition political figures and restrictions on their activities. In September 2017, Tundu Lissu, a member of parliament and parliamentary chief whip of the opposition Chadema party ( Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo , the Party for Democracy and Progress), was shot by unknown assailants and seriously wounded. Lissu, who is also the president of the Tanganyika Law Society, is a fierce critic of President Magufuli and his government, but also a long-standing critic of corruption who may face hostility from many quarters. Lissu has often been arrested for his long-standing criticism of the government. The shooting was preceded by a firebombing of a local blue chip law firm, IMMMA Advocates, a local affiliate of the U.S. firm DLA Piper, which Lissu alleged police were involved in. Other opposition parliamentarians also face frequent duress from police. In late September 2017, police arrested a Chadema MP after a party event, and another complained that police were prohibiting his meetings with constituents, as had another in August. Such events have been preceded by many similar ones in recent years, notably during electoral periods.