Haley Stevens: “I would like to express to the Senator from Kentucky, the chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, my concern as…”

“I would like to express to the Senator from Kentucky, the chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, my concern as to whether the rescission in this bill to the Agency for International Development [AID] budget might affect the fiscal year 1995 funding level for the Enterprise Development Program. The projects funded in this program are some of the most successful in the former Soviet Union. I have personal experience with the American Russian Center [ARC] in Alaska, which receives its funding through this program. As you may be aware, during its exit briefing for their assessment of AID's programs in the Newly Independent States [NIS] the General Accounting Office [GAO] stated that the ARC was one of the two best programs in Russia. Mr. Tom Dine, the AID assistant administrator for Eastern Europe and Russia, is quoted as saying 'I use it [ARC] as an example to other Universities of how to get involved in the whole economic transition effort taking place in the former Soviet Union.' ARC is the only AID privatization program in the Russian Far East Region, and in its first year provided training and technical assistance to over 1,000 Russians.”