Nita Lowey: “the Bush administration requested an increase in economic support funds for Cuba from $9 million to $45.7 million.…”

“the Bush administration requested an increase in economic support funds for Cuba from $9 million to $45.7 million. Between 1996 and 2005, USAID and the Department of State signed contracts worth $74 million for Cuba programs, according to the GAO's study. The administration is asking for a 1-year, fiscal year 2008 request that is more than two-thirds the size of what was committed over the 10 years, from 1996 and 2005. This request is 500 percent of what USAID received in the last fiscal year. Given how ill-conceived and ill-managed the program is, there is no justification for an aid increase. My friend from Florida has raised the GAO report and said that it has not recommended that funding be cut. But the objective of the report was not to recommend that funding should be increased or decreased. It was to examine the roles and objectives of the agencies implementing United States democracy assistance targeted at Cuba, and the characteristics and selection of the grantees receiving Department of State and USAID awards, the types, amounts, beneficiaries and methods used to deliver assistance for selected grantees in 2005, USAID's monitoring and oversight of these grantees, and the availability of data to evaluate whether U.S. assistance has achieved its goals.”