Yesterday, USGLC’s own Mark Green testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights on the topic of fighting malaria. Ambassador Green told the subcommittee “millions of lives have been saved and millions of lives can be saved in the years to come.” Also, South Carolina Advisory Committee member Admiral Albert J. Baciocco Jr. wrote a letter to the editor of the Charleston Post and Courier saying “At a time when our diplomats and development experts are preparing to take the lead in Afghanistan and Iraq, we must support U.S. foreign aid so we can complete the missions and build a lasting peace and a better, safer world.”

Must Reads

USGLC In the News

Subcommittee Hearing: “Fighting Malaria: Progress and Challenges” (Katie Todd, Malaria Policy Center)

Yesterday, Dr. David Bowen, CEO of Malaria No More, was honored to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights at the hearing, “Fighting Malaria: Progress and Challenges.”Ambassador Mark Green was the first witness to testify and began his statement detailing what he called the “most exciting development” in the fight against malaria: leadership.

Key investment (Admiral Albert J. Baciocco Jr., Charleston Post and Courier)

After reading Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s opinion piece on foreign aid in the Nov. 20 paper, I would urge him to listen to military leaders about how critical our international affairs programs are to our national security. Leaders like Gen. David Petraeus are very clear on how essential civilians supported by the foreign aid budget are to getting their jobs done.

Who’s In the News

US will use foreign aid to defend gay rights abroad, Clinton, Obama declare: culture no excuse (AP)

The Obama administration bluntly warned the world against gay and lesbian discrimination Tuesday, declaring the U.S. will use foreign assistance as well as diplomacy to back its insistence that gay rights are fully equal to other basic human rights. In unusually strong language, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women’s rights and racial equality, and she said a country’s cultural or religious traditions are no excuse for discrimination. Texas Gov. Rick Perry went further. “Promoting special rights for gays in foreign countries is not in America’s interests and not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money,” a Perry campaign statement said.

Gingrich, Romney and Perry must stand by Israel’s foreign (Congressman Steve Rothman, Jerusalem Post Magazine)

The Jewish State of Israel and the United States have always been strong allies. We have shared democratic and cultural values, and many Americans share a religious bond to the ancient and current homeland of the Jewish people. However, the unbreakable and intimate nature of the US-Israel alliance runs much deeper than history and religion. Our foreign aid to Israel is essential to US national security interests and is a strategic investment in keeping America safe.

Smart Power

Analysis: Yemen desperate for aid as economy crumbles (Martin Dokoupil and Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters)

A deal to remove Yemen’s leader from power may pave the way for flows of desperately needed foreign aid into the country, after aid slowed to a trickle this year because of political violence. Ten months of unrest demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and deteriorating security around the country, have deterred international donors from providing help needed to finance food imports and government operations.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Republican Candidates Aim at Obama Foreign Policy (Richard Oppel, New York Times)

Now that several months of full-throated campaigning are on the books, a major thrust of the Republican foreign-policy argument has emerged: that President Obama has not strongly supported Israel and that he has been too soft on its adversaries, Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinians. That softness, they say, extends to other parts of the world.