Ed Royce: “Just to share with the Members here that on January 12, 2010, there was a massive earthquake that struck near the…”

“Just to share with the Members here that on January 12, 2010, there was a massive earthquake that struck near the Haitian capital of Port-au- Prince, leaving some 220,000 people dead and 1.5 million people displaced. Since 2010, the United States has made a big commitment in humanitarian relief and a big commitment to reconstruction and development assistance in Haiti. A good bit of this was allocated to the U.S. Agency for International Development to support an ambitious recovery plan that included housing and industrial development. Last summer, the House Foreign Affairs Committee received a GAO report detailing a startling lack of progress on U.S.-funded reconstruction efforts in Haiti. The committee followed up by sending a bipartisan delegation of staff to investigate and then held an oversight hearing on Haiti reconstruction, where Members asked tough questions about USAID efforts. One recommendation we heard over and over was that Congress needs improved and more frequent reporting to ensure that we are being kept up to date on reconstruction activities and so that Congress can provide tough oversight at a time when much of the funding for Haiti has yet to be spent. Wasted taxpayer funding is simply unacceptable here. While we can help, Haitians must do better.…”