This week the Obama Administration complied with Congressman Walter B. Jones' August request to stop a U.S. government foreign aid program spending $10 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars to train 3,000 Sri Lankans to become IT specialists, and to then place them with outsourcing companies to take jobs from U.S. workers. The response from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) stated that the agency has "suspended the program and is undertaking a review of it in accordance with USAID policy to document any negative impact on the U.S. job market." Congressman Jones had brought the issue to the Administration's attention in an August 6 letter to USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for this government to waste taxpayers' hard-earned dollars on training foreign workers to take U.S. jobs. That is particularly true at a time when unemployment remains far too high. It's a shame that the Administration approved this program in the first place, but I am pleased that USAID has recognized the problem and suspended it."
As a long-time opponent of foreign aid spending, Jones found it outrageous to spend taxpayer dollars to train Sri Lankans to do the same jobs that thousands of unemployed Americans would be happy to have. Jones has voted against every foreign aid spending bill in the last 15 years.