United States FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, FOR 1997 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SUBCOMMITTEE ON FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Livingston, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Obey, as Ranking PART 3 Administrator-Agency for International Development 24-838 O Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1996 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-052732-5 Page 1 141 A646 1996 pt.3 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS BOB LIVINGSTON, Louisiana, Chairman JOSEPH M. McDADE, Pennsylvania JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois JIM KOLBE, Arizona BARBARA F. VUCANOVICH, Nevada JIM LIGHTFOOT, Iowa RON PACKARD, California CHARLES H. TAYLOR, North Carolina ERNEST J. ISTOOK, JR., Oklahoma JOE KNOLLENBERG, Michigan JAY DICKEY, Arkansas JACK KINGSTON, Georgia FRANK RIGGS, California MIKE PARKER, Mississippi RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New Jersey GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, JR., Washington MARK W. NEUMANN, Wisconsin DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin JOHN P. MURTHA, Pennsylvania VIC FAZIO, California W. G. (BILL) HEFNER, North Carolina RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois ALAN B. MOLLOHAN, West Virginia MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio DAVID E. SKAGGS, Colorado NANCY PELOSI, California PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana THOMAS M. FOGLIETTA, Pennsylvania ESTEBAN EDWARD TORRES, California JAMES W. DYER, Clerk and Staff Director (II) 96-170547 Mr. CALLAHAN. Good morning, Mr. Administrator. We are happy you could be with us. It is important that we hear from you and have the ability to ask questions, because it is becoming difficult to obtain timely and complete information from AID regarding its ongoing operations and the 1997 budget as well. We do not yet have a congressional presentation document from AID. Both the State Department and Treasury Department have supplied us with documents for their budget request. We also only have tentative numbers for country allocations for fiscal year 1997, and although I do understand that you are negotiating with the State Department on final decisions on country closeout and reductions, I am told that it will be at least mid-May before a complete congressional presentation document will be available to the committee. Thus, we may mark up our 1997 appropriation bill without an adequate justification for the President's budget request for AID. While our 1996 appropriation bill was not fully enacted into law until late January, with the exception of one amendment, the conference report was actually adopted in the House last October. The 1996 funding level should have been no surprise to the agency. However, it was not until 2 weeks ago that we received a final version of AID's proposed plans for implementation of the 1996 Appropriation Act, and the 1996 country allocations have just arrived. I have stated a number of times that I am not interested in micromanaging your department. However, if operational flexibility is abused or if the agency fails to adequately inform the Congress of their activities, then we certainly have the authority to take stronger steps. In addition, as I indicated in our Haiti hearing last month, when we do take a position in either bill language or report language, I expect this direction to be taken seriously. If it is not, then my po |