Durbin Introduces Bill to Improve Global Development Efforts

Press Release

Durbin Introduces Bill to Improve Global Development Efforts

United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced a bill on Saturday, to significantly improve the nation's ability to implement global development assistance programs. Durbin's Increasing America's Global Development Capacity Act, authorizes the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to hire an additional 2,000 new Foreign Service Officers over the next three years in an effort to begin rebuilding its capacity to implement long-term development assistance strategies and programs.

"Foreign development assistance is as important a foreign policy tool as diplomacy and defense. It not only provides aid to those most in need but is a symbol of American service to others, ingenuity, and generosity." Durbin said. "This bill will help USAID become a more robust development agency, spearheading our efforts to improve the lives of others."

In recent decades, USAID has experienced dramatic reductions in real budget dollars and professional staff. During the 1960s, USAID had a staff of over 5,000 Foreign Service Officers to tackle development needs around the world. Today it has just over 1,000.

Yet today's global challenges, including child and maternal mortality; HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria; access to clean water, and political instability remain significant in many corners of the world. Durbin says he believes helping other nations overcome these challenges is not only the right thing to do, but it is in our national interest. Such assistance helps improve the well-being of many living in poverty around the world and provides a tangible positive example of America's role in the world.

Specifically, the Increasing America's Global Development Capacity Act will do the following:

* Authorize USAID to hire an additional 700 Foreign Service Officers the first year to begin rebuilding its capacity to implement long-term development assistance strategies and programs. Fortunately the FY09 USAID budget increase approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee would pay for these new overseas experts.

* It would also establish a goal of hiring an additional 1, 300 Foreign Service Officers by 2011, with flexibility in case other high priority programs must be funded.

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