WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today gave the following opening remarks at a full committee hearing on the Build Act reauthorization and Development Finance Corporation oversight. Witnesses included The Honorable Scott A. Nathan, chief executive officer at the Development Finance Corporation.
Ranking Member Risch gave the following remarks:
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having this hearing today.
“It is in the United States’ interest to promote economic freedom which lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and achieves shared prosperity. It is also in our strategic interest to protect economic freedom from encroachment by authoritarian regimes that seek to undermine free markets.
“That is why, in 2018, Congress authorized the creation of the Development Finance Corporation – an agency with unique authorities to make development finance more efficient, effective, and impactful.
“I am concerned, however, about the DFC’s ability to balance its dual mandate to advance and protect economic freedom – particularly when this administration seeks to use the DFC to promote its agenda. At times, it appears some people have forgotten that ‘development’ is even in its name.
“It comes as no surprise that the administration and many of my colleagues are eager to put DFC resources to work in specific regions, favored countries, or hand-picked sectors. But the DFC cannot be everything to everyone all at once. The DFC can play an important role with many other U.S. government agencies in an overall strategy of countering China. But the DFC cannot save the world on its own.
“The DFC’s mission is market-oriented development. Too many mandates imposed by Congress will strangle that mission. Flexibility is key here.
“The DFC’s success depends on its ability to find willing private sector borrowers with good projects in developing countries. The more policy riders Congress forces on DFC, the harder it will be for the DFC to find those partners.
“Repeated efforts to launch investments in high-income countries invite rightful skepticism toward the DFC’s commitment to maintaining a development focus. U.S. taxpayers should not be subsidizing rich countries who have the money to pay for their own policy priorities.
“Nowhere is the abandonment of the DFC’s foundational principles more evident than in the energy sector. Instead of listening to what developing countries want and need, the administration is pushing a ‘zero carbon’ mandate that will fail to close the energy gap and will only push other countries closer to China and Russia, who do not impose those mandates.
“Moreover, it is outrageous that the agency would rely so heavily upon solar energy projects built upon the backs of Uyghur slave labor. There is no place for slave labor in any DFC-supported projects, indeed for anything the United States touches, including solar supply chains. The United States cannot compromise its values to achieve messaging related climate objectives, and must continue to make it clear that forced labor is unacceptable.
“With that being said, there are plenty of opportunities to enhance the DFC’s work through creative legislative fixes.
“I am eager to hear from the DFC on what it needs to succeed in achieving its mission.
“Thank you.”
These remarks have been lightly edited for clarity. Witness testimony is available on foreign.senate.gov.
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