Young Leads Bipartisan Legislation to Improve Congressional Oversight of State Department, USAID

Washington, D.C.-Today, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-IN), joined by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Chris Coons (D-DE), introduced theDepartment of State and United States Agency for International DevelopmentAccountability Act of 2017.

Young said, “We have a responsibility to Hoosiers to ensure their government is working for them. Congress should have the necessary information to conduct effective oversight, promote reform, and ensure the Department of State and USAID are giving American taxpayers a strong return on their investment. This commonsense and bipartisan reform will make the federal government more responsive to Hoosiers and more effective in its operations.”

There are dozens of Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations that the Department of State and USAID have not implemented or failed to implement fully. This bill, (S.418) would require the Department of State and USAID to submit a report to Congress detailing an implementation timeline for each outstanding GAO recommendation or an explanation for a decision to not implement GAO’s recommendations. I spoke more about this issue during a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing; click here to watch my comments.