Letter
NTU Writes in Support of H.R. 3159, the "Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012."
November 30, 2011
The Honorable Ted Poe
United States House of Representatives
430 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Poe:
On behalf of the 362,000 members of
the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write in support of your bill, H.R. 3159,
the “Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012.” Your legislation
would bring accountability and transparency to the foreign aid process by
requiring federal agencies to establish performance-evaluation guidelines for
assistance programs and creating a user-friendly website to track how taxpayer
money is being spent.
Increasingly complex global
challenges, in combination with a proliferation of foreign aid programs have
led to muddled objectives and poor results for America’s foreign assistance
funding. According to an independent study commissioned by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), “Current monitoring and evaluation of most
U.S. foreign assistance is uneven across agencies, focuses on outputs rather
than outcomes and impact, lacks sufficient rigor, and does not produce the
necessary analysis to inform strategic decision making.”
In an era of historically high
deficits, it has never been more critical for Washington to ensure that
Americans’ tax dollars are being spent wisely and only in furtherance of our
foreign policy and security objectives. The Obama Administration has taken
modest steps to introduce some level of accountability to these programs
through the creation of a Foreign Assistance Dashboard and USAID’s formulation
of a Monitoring and Evaluation policy. However, these approaches are limited in
the number of aid-providing agencies they cover and the metrics they are meant
to assess.
The Foreign Aid Transparency and
Accountability Act would build upon this foundation by examining all of our
foreign assistance investments and then creating an Internet-based hub to
publicly display the information. This would be accomplished by creating measurable
goals and a feedback loop to encourage continuous improvements. H.R. 3159 would
also expand the Foreign Assistance Dashboard initiative to ensure all
government agencies involved in foreign aid provide searchable information such
as expenditures, congressional budget justifications, country assistance
strategies, and program evaluations. This would not only add much-needed
transparency for U.S. taxpayers, but would also provide foreign stakeholders
with a powerful tool to fight corruption in their own countries.
In the current partisan climate, H.R. 3159 promises to
eliminate wasteful spending and increase the effectiveness of our foreign aid
programs – goals that should unite all lawmakers. NTU applauds the introduction
of the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act and encourages all
Members to work toward its passage.
Sincerely,
Brandon Greife
Federal
Government Affairs Manager
108 North Alfred Street Ø Alexandria,
Virginia 22314 Ø Phone: (703)
683-5700 Ø Fax: (703)
683-5722 Ø Web:
www.ntu.org
