Forbes: Absolutely Reorganize, But Don’t Break Foreign Assistance
Daniel Runde, William Chreyer chair and director of the Project on U.S. Leadership and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

“…President Trump … announced a potential reorganization of federal agencies, including the State Department and USAID. … Several principles should help guide any reorganization: First, titles and hierarchy matter so provide a real ‘Deputy Secretary of State’ title to the person in charge of development. … Second, recognize development and stabilization as a distinct profession on the same level as diplomacy and defense. … Third, development projects require longer time frames than political or diplomatic efforts and reorganization should reflect this reality. … Fourth, remember the breaking of our public diplomacy capacities with the death of [the U.S. Information Agency (USIA)]. … Fifth, the person who has the development job should control the development budget planning process known as the ‘F’ process. … Sixth, include all 16 agencies ‘doing development’ in this reorganization. … Seventh, the Trump administration should seek to change the mid-1990s OMB rule that gave free reign to independent agencies to freelance on international development with limited or no oversight by U.S. embassies and by USAID. … Eighth, any major reorganization will require congressional cooperation across multiple committees. The Trump administration should work with all of them. … U.S. foreign policy and assistance should be streamlined and organized better, but the Trump administration needs to be careful not to break our ability to exert influence around the globe in the process” (3/23).