House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fla., called for the restructuring of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as opposed to its elimination, adding it should placed under the State Department.
On Sunday, Mast told CBS News' "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan, "I would be absolutely for, if that's the path we go down, removing USAID as a separate department and having it fall under whether the other parts of the United States, Department of State, because of its failure."
Earlier in the interview, when asked by Brennan if the Trump administration had plans to "dismantle or significantly shrink" USAID, Mast replied, "This is something I'm working on specifically in conjunction with Secretary [Marco] Rubio to make sure there's the appropriate command and control of these agencies, where again, to make that same point, right now, maybe 10 to 30 cents ... on the dollar is what actually goes to aid."
Mast argued that the secretary of state should have more authority over USAID under the guise of efficiency.
Brennan pointed out to Mast that the agency already reports to the secretary of state.
Last week, the State Department issued a "stop-work" order for roughly all aid except to Israel and Egypt. Rubio approved a waiver to the order allowing "foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and administrative expenses, including salaries, necessary to administer foreign military financing," according to a memo obtained by The Guardian.
When asked by Brennan about making USAID more efficient in delivering aid "versus restructuring," Mast replied, "Well, that requires restructuring, 100%. You can't create that efficiency just by wishing it into existence; you have to restructure where the failures are and put the right things in place."
According to a 2014 report in The New York Times, the objective of USAID, created in 1961, was to assist the U.S. in winning over the "hearts and minds" of people in poor nations via economic aid, humanitarian assistance, and civic action.
It was Cold War policy tool that was sometimes used as a front for CIA operations and operatives, according to the Times, citing the Office of Public Safety, a USAID police training program that also trained torturers in the Southern Cone.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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