Ed Royce: “I rise today to engage the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Kolbe, in a colloquy. Mr. Chairman, as you know, on Tuesday…”

“I rise today to engage the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Kolbe, in a colloquy. Mr. Chairman, as you know, on Tuesday the administration successfully concluded negotiations for the fourth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility, the GEF. These have been long and detailed negotiations that had been scheduled to be concluded last year. The GEF is an important international institution for protection of the global environment, and we should be pleased that negotiations have come, frankly, to a very successful resolution. The Treasury Department, which conducted the negotiations on behalf of the United States, got, in essence, all of the reforms it demanded. These include the items mentioned on the report language accompanying the bill, including the two major changes proposed by the U.S.: first, plans to apply a resource allocation framework to the entire GEF portfolio of new projects by 2010; second, enhanced fiduciary standards for agents that the GEF works with, including a prohibition of new funding to agencies that do not meet the standards. The agreement also resolved the other outstanding issues to our satisfaction: removal of language regarding arrears that were objectionable to the United States; a provision regarding expanding the number of agencies the GEF works with; a provision on institutional effectiveness; and a firm target for satisfactory outcome ratings for GEF projects.…”