WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Tuesday spoke at a U.S. Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In his questions to USAID Administrator Samantha Power, Murphy highlighted the challenges facing aid organizations in Gaza and discussed the deteriorating security situation in Haiti.

Last week, Murphy visited Americares, a Connecticut-based, health-focused relief and development organization, whose partner organization in Gaza has suspended operations due to the danger facing aid workers. Murphy highlighted the consequences of this difficult decision: “They’re suspending those operations not because of a lack of access, not because of an overly bureaucratic process at the ports. They are suspending their programming there because they don't think they can keep their people safe because of our inability to do deconfliction in a meaningful way. They are not likely to resume operations until there is a cessation of hostilities, and so we just have to be pretty clear-eyed about the fact that until the bombs stop dropping, until the shooting stops, it’s going to be very, very hard to be able to do what we need to do inside Gaza and save the kind of lives we want to save.”

On Haiti’s deteriorating security situation and the role the U.S. can play, Murphy said: “We have been the biggest humanitarian contributor to a country that continues to spiral out of control as gangs now control the majority of the capital. $171 million since October 2022 — I think we should be proud of that fact. But I think we all worry that Haiti is lurching into what may be a permanent state of emergency that is going to be a significant drain on what we have heard today are dwindling resources with lots of suitors and competitors. This is a really critical moment and I know there is a deep skepticism about the role that the United States has played and should play when it comes to restoring security in Haiti.

He continued: “I convened a meeting of Haitian-American leaders in my state, and they had a variety of opinions as to what role the United States should play. So, I want to ask you a question, not about whether we should be a humanitarian partner in saving lives in Haiti, but what is the proper role for the United States to play right now in restoring security in Haiti? Because this seems to be a moment to double down on our work in that endeavor rather than just to sit back and let others lead while we continue to provide the bulk of humanitarian assistance.”

Last month, Murphy released a statement on the deteriorating security situation in Haiti as violence erupted. In March, Murphy also helped introduce the Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causes Harm (CATCH) Act, legislation that would help curb illicit arms trafficking from the United States to the Caribbean by requiring the Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions to report on the implementation of anti-firearm-trafficking provisions included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

MURPHY: “Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Let me just make one addendum to this discussion about what is happening in Gaza today. Last week I visited a Connecticut-based emergency relief organization, Americares. They deliver mainly emergency medicines into conflict areas. They are amongst a number of organizations that have suspended operations in Gaza.

“They’re suspending those operations not because of a lack of access, not because of an overly bureaucratic process at the ports. They are suspending their programming there because they don't think they can keep their people safe because of our inability to do deconfliction in a meaningful way. They are not likely to resume operations until there is a cessation of hostilities, and so we just have to be pretty clear-eyed about the fact that until the bombs stop dropping, until the shooting stops, it’s going to be very, very hard to be able to do what we need to do inside Gaza and save the kind of lives we want to save.

“Administrator Power, I wanted to turn your attention to Haiti for a moment. We have been the biggest humanitarian contributor to a country that continues to spiral out of control as gangs now control the majority of the capital. $171 million since October 2022—I think we should be proud of that fact.

“But I think we all worry that Haiti is lurching into what may be a permanent state of emergency that is going to be a significant drain on what we have heard today are dwindling resources with lots of suitors and competitors. This is a really critical moment, and I know there is a deep skepticism about the role that the United States has played and should play when it comes to restoring security in Haiti.

“I convened a meeting of Haitian-American leaders in my state, and they had a variety of opinions as to what role the United States should play. So, I want to ask you a question, not about whether we should be a humanitarian partner in saving lives in Haiti, but what is the proper role for the United States to play right now in restoring security in Haiti? Because this seems to be a moment to double down on our work in that endeavor rather than just to sit back and let others lead while we continue to provide the bulk of humanitarian assistance.”

POWER: “Well just to embrace the premise of your question that there is no humanitarian fix to a complete breakdown in security as is happening in so many neighborhoods and in the capital. Look, I think the U.S. role has been on display over the course actually of several years, going around the world and trying to find a partner who was willing to put security forces, in this case police forces, on the ground in Haiti, securing the commitment. Huge thanks to the Kenyans and to President Ruto for being willing to step forward. And that was of course in an environment that was already unstable, already very, very difficult and now all the more so.

“These conversations are ongoing, but mobilizing the resources that we have in order to be in a position to support the payment of salaries — because this is of course not a traditional UN peacekeeping mission, it is blessed by the UN but not funded by the UN— I think that’s an important role for the United States. But so is the diplomacy we’ve done to get other countries, like the Canadians and many of the Europeans as well, to step up and fund and equip that force.

“But the diplomacy around the three legs of the stool — security, humanitarian welfare, and governance — and the fact there hasn't been a legitimately elected government in Haiti is something that has surely contributed to the breakdown in security as well as gangs and others use that at least as a pretext for their vigilantism.

“So, the efforts to pull together a transition, USAID stands ready with a lot of election support when we are in a position to provide it and when there is a roadmap to elections, but you won't get security without governance and of course you can't get that roadmap to elections until we have a baseline of security.”

MURPHY: “Yeah, I think we’ve got a really short window in which to figure out the path forward and find those international partners. Let me pull back and ask you one additional question about China competition. Really excited about the work you are doing to better evaluate the impact of programs on the ground, but there is an asymmetry between how we view our aid and how China views its aid.

“We are looking at the impact of our aid largely through a policy lens, trying to impact the largest number of people possible. China is really looking at their aid more so through a political lens. An example is, you know, often there are pet projects that dictators or quasi-dictators have around the world that we don't see as a real ROI for the citizens of that country. We aren’t willing to put our dollars behind it, but China will. Do you see it as an exposure to the United States that our aid is more focused on how many people we can help and China's aid is focused more on how many officials they can influence? How do we balance that asymmetry?”

POWER: “Needless to say, I think our budget request is and particularly the investments in global infrastructure efforts are a reflection of our desire to be more competitive in terms of the kinds of resources that we are investing. So that’s quantity. We should be showing up. They are actually receding. From having become the world's largest debt collector, their investments are way down in fact, over the last two or three years, having become overextended, not getting maybe the return on investment that they had sought, being in that position of being debt collector, they’re rethinking what they are doing.

“There is an opening, there is a real opening. But I do think our competitive advantage is quality, fundamentally. And that involves not only quality of infrastructure, transparent procurement, not having the investments we make benefit the few rather than the many, but it’s also the quality of what, for example, an agency like USAID can come in with to align with infrastructure that is being built. You've heard a lot about the Lobito Corridor, the flagship initial major investment associated with the PGI. We are looking at mobile money, so small-scale farmers can better access resources in order to take that loan out, in order to be able to get the access to capital they need to grow their business for when that rail exists. We will actually support them in getting their goods to market, but getting them digitized is a prerequisite for the growth that they envisage for themselves.

“USAID is funding a public-private partnership with the Department of Transportation in Angola to help them do other concessions for their infrastructure, but again in a manner that is transparent, that changes the enabling environment, hopefully over time sees civil society also empowered to scrutinize what is being done in governmental circles. It’s an entirely different model, but it reflects that, or my response at least tries to reflect, the toolkit that we need to bring to bear, which is both about the hard infrastructure which people are craving, but also aligning development, human development, along with those investments.

“We can build a railroad, but if we aren't actually investing in nutrition and education and small- to medium-sized enterprises en route at the same time, the return on that investment is going to be much more limited. The last thing I would say is just the polling is very striking about public reactions in the countries that have taken that alternate development approach, and a real souring on seeing those big infrastructure projects that either aren't actually of the quality that citizens need in terms of their infrastructure – some of them are, but many of them are not – that are saddling publics with debt in the longer term, but also that are bringing in workers from outside the country rather than using infrastructure as a source of employment in the countries themselves. So I think the polls are the best diagnostic about whether we need to change or whether we just need to scale what we are trying to do.”

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