FY 2020 FOREIGN ASSISTANCE BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION APRIL 9, 2019 Serial No. 116–25 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs ( Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov, or http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 35–893PDF WASHINGTON : 2019 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman BRAD SHERMAN, California MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas, Ranking GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York Member ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia STEVE CHABOT, Ohio THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida JOE WILSON, South Carolina KAREN BASS, California SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts TED S. YOHO, Florida DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois AMI BERA, California LEE ZELDIN, New York JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas JIM SENSENBRENNER, Wisconsin DINA TITUS, Nevada ANN WAGNER, Missouri ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York BRIAN MAST, Florida TED LIEU, California FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota JOHN CURTIS, Utah ILHAN OMAR, Minnesota KEN BUCK, Colorado COLIN ALLRED, Texas RON WRIGHT, Texas ANDY LEVIN, Michigan GUY RESCHENTHALER, Pennsylvania ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, Virginia TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania GREG PENCE, Indiana TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey STEVE WATKINS, Kansas DAVID TRONE, Maryland MIKE GUEST, Mississippi JIM COSTA, California JUAN VARGAS, California VICENTE GONZALEZ, Texas JASON STEINBAUM, Staff Director BRENDAN SHIELDS, Republican Staff Director (II) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESS Green, The Honorable Mark, Administrator, United States Agency for Inter- national Development .......................................................................................... 8 APPENDIX Hearing Notice ......................................................................................................... 61 Hearing Minutes ...................................................................................................... 62 Hearing Attendance ................................................................................................. 63 STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD SUBMITTED FROM A COMMITTEE MEMBER Statement submitted for the record from Representative Connolly .................... 64 RESPOSNSES TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD Responses to questions submittted from Chairman Engel .................................. 66 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Smith .......................... 76 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Sherman ..................... 78 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Sires ........................... 80 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Titus ........................... 82 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Lieu ............................ 84 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Houlahan ................... 87 Responses to questions submittted from Representative Malinowski ................ 89 (III) FY 2020 FOREIGN ASSISTANCE BUDGET AND POLICY PRIORITIES Tuesday, April 9, 2019 House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:41 a.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Eliot Engel (chairman of the committee) presiding. Chairman ENGEL [presiding]. The committee will come to order. Without objection, all members will have 5 days to submit state- ments, extraneous material, and questions for the record, subject to the length limitation in the rules. Welcome, everyone, this morning. We convene this morning to get answers about the Trump Ad- ministration’s Fiscal Year 2020 foreign assistance budget request. We will hear testimony from Mark Green, one of our former Mem- bers who has moved on to bigger and better things, the Adminis- trator of the United States Agency for International Development, and a former Member of this body and this committee. So, welcome back, Administrator. Thank you for your service. Welcome to the public and members of the press as well. I am a firm believer in development as a way to advance Amer- ican interests and security that is rooted firmly in our values. For- eign assistance shows our country’s generosity and compassion. It is a concrete demonstration of our commitment to human rights, to the dignity of all people. And to fully appreciate these efforts, you need to see them up close. A couple of weeks ago, Ranking Member McCaul and I, along with Mr. Espaillat and Mr. Curtis, and some members of the Judi- ciary Committee, visited El Salvador. USAID’s work there was in- spiring. It was helping to foster skills and provide opportunities for desperate families—families who without this bit of help might have no option but to flee the poverty and violence in their commu- nities, who might decide it was a better bet to make the dangerous journey from El Salvador to our own southern border. But the work we are doing there, at a cost of pennies to the tax- payer, is giving these people a shot at a prosperous, safe life in their own countries. And while we were there, we found out the President decided to cut funding for all these initiatives. That is just one anecdote. This budget I am holding up, is an entire policy based on the same kind of thinking. It would seek to slash our investment in de- velopment by 32 percent. So, it is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It is just silly. (1) 2 If this budget were put into effect, it would not just be Salva- dorans pushed aside by the heartless and harmful approach to for- eign policy. It would be victims of flooding in Mozambique; Syrians and Iraqis seeking to protect their communities from the next gen- eration of al-Qaeda or ISIS; citizens of young, unstable democracies where Russia is trying to meddle and interfere, and tuberculosis and malaria and AIDS patients all around the world. Core humanitarian accounts and democracy and governance pro- grams slashed by 40 percent. Maternal and child health programs cut by a quarter. Food security, nutrition assistance, basic edu- cation, all chopped by roughly half. Food for Peace zeroed out com- pletely. What an ugly picture this budget paints of America. And what a signal of withdrawal and disengagement it sends, and you can bet that China, Russia, and Iran are listening. Mr. Administrator, we should have spared the trees that it took to print these budgets because Congress will not allow the gutting of American development efforts. It was tried in the past 2 years. We fought back on a bipartisan basis, and we are going to do it again. There are simply too many challenges around the world that de- mand American leadership. From the flight of more than a million and half Venezuelans to Colombia. And Mr. McCaul and I were on that border last week, the Venezuela-Colombia border, and it was heartbreaking to see so many people getting food—a very little bit of food and just basically starving, and just having no hope for the future. It was just heart-wrenching. So, we take the flight of more than a million and a half Ven- ezuelans to Colombia and throughout the Americas, to the Rohingya crisis in Burma and Bangladesh, to the remarkable growth of democracy in Ethiopia. There are too many opportunities to build bridges of friendship and understanding. There are too many people struggling and suffering for us to just turn our backs and say, ‘‘Figure it out on your own.’’ Of course, not everything depends on budget numbers. Dan- gerous policies like the global gag rule are doing real harm. This approach to women’s health is causing clinics to close, blocking ac- cess to HIV tests, and denying women and girls basic health care from doctors and nurses they trust. It amounts to politicians in Washington punishing poor women around the world to score points for our domestic political agenda. It should be reversed. Mark, I know from your time in the House on this committee, your service as ambassador, and your time at the helm of USAID that you sincerely care about American development efforts. When I heard that you were appointed, I was delighted, and nothing you have done has made me change my mind. But I do not envy your having to defend this budget request. I know our members are eager for a frank discussion of these matters, and I am grateful that you are with us this morning. So, again, I want to thank you. Before we hear from you, I will yield to our ranking member, Mr. Mike McCaul of Texas, for any opening remarks he might have. Mr. MCCAUL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Ambassador Green, for coming here today. It is al- ways good to see a former colleague come back home to the Con- 3 gress. You have been very engaged with us, and I appreciate our discussions we have had on America’s engagement in the devel- oping world. In particular, for me, a cause I have been fighting for a decade is childhood cancer. It is a priority for me. I look forward to work- ing with you on this challenge in the coming months, and look for- ward to our trip to Africa as well, and global health issues. Two weeks ago, as the chairman mentioned, we saw really first- hand USAID’s critical work in Colombia. Your agency is working around the clock to help provide lifesaving food and health supplies to those affected by this Maduro crisis. And it was heart-wrench- ing, as the chairman said, to see