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American Tax Dollars: U.S. Taxpayer’s Fund $1,377,747,000 Foreign Assistance Act

Your tax dollars at work. A new series of short clips on exactly how your tax dollars are being spent and where they are being appropriated around the globe. Who writes this stuff?

The Foreign Assistance Act (Pub.L. 87–195, 75 Stat. 424-2, enacted September 4, 1961, 22 U.S.C. § 2151 et seq.) is a United States Act of Congress.

The Act reorganized the structure of existing U.S. foreign assistance programs, distinguishing between military from non-military aid, and created a new agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to administer non-military, economic assistance programs. President John F. Kennedy signed the Act on November 3, 1961, and issued Executive Order 10973, detailing the reorganization.

USAID unified already existing U.S. aid efforts, combining the economic and technical assistance operations of the International Cooperation Administration, the loan activities of the Development Loan Fund, the local currency functions of the Export-Import Bank, and the agricultural surplus distribution activities of the Food for Peace program of the Department of Agriculture.

The Act provides that no assistance is to be provided to a government which “engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, and the security of person, unless such assistance will directly benefit the needy people in such country.”

“For necessary expenses to carry out the provisions of section 667 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, $1,377,747,000, of which up to $206,662,000 may remain available until September 30, 2022”

“Provided, That none of the funds appropriated under this heading and under the heading ‘‘Capital Investment Fund’’ in this title may be made available to finance the construction (including architect and engineering services), purchase, or long-term lease of offices for use by the United States Agency for International Development, unless the USAID Administrator has identified such proposed use of funds in a report submitted to the Committees on Appropriations at least 15 days prior to the obligation of funds for such our poses”

“Provided further, That contracts or agreements entered into with funds appropriated under this heading may entail commitments for the expenditure of such funds through the following fiscal year.”

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