Howard Berman: “I'm very proud to cosponsor this amendment with Mr. Skelton, the Chair of the committee, along with the Chair of the…”

“I'm very proud to cosponsor this amendment with Mr. Skelton, the Chair of the committee, along with the Chair of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, Mrs. Lowey. Among the many lessons learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the stark fact that the State Department and Defense Department have failed to coordinate on critical policy issues in these two war zones. In fact, throughout the U.S. Government, there is a misalignment between resources and missions, expertise and funding. The problems are most evident in the arena of stability and reconstruction operations, where the Defense Department has assumed the lion's share of responsibilities. However, the Defense Department is now playing a greater role in a wide range of foreign assistance programs. By some estimates, more than 20 percent of foreign aid now flows through the Pentagon. Some of this can be attributed to a lack of capacity at State and USAID, a problem we're trying to address through legislation authored by Mr. Farr, which the House passed and is now a part of this bill. But to the extent these problems result from a lack of coordination, we need to take steps to help ensure that the day-to-day plumbing of our national security agencies is sufficiently welded so that personnel from different departments have incentive to work together, and that the objectives of these departments are properly calibrated with overall U.S. Government priorities.”