U.S. Foreign Aid

U.S. Foreign Aid forms the basis of the country's international affairs budget. According to many, the U.S. Foreign Aid is an essential component of the American foreign policy. However, offering extensive financial assistances to countries across the globe is possible for America, owing to its immense accumulation of wealth.

In United States of America, there exists 5 different types of foreign aids, such as:

Humanitarian Aid

Military Aid

Multilateral Economic Contributions

Bilateral Development Aid

Economic assistance, promoting the American security and political plan of actions

With the introduction of 2 fresh foreign aid categories in recent times, namely the Millennium Challenge Corporation and The Global AIDS Initiative, the Bilateral Development Assistance has become the second most important type of foreign aid in America.

The latest status of American Foreign Aid:

In the year 2004, America is known to have offered foreign financial assistances to as many as 150 nations across the world in diverse forms. Among the recipients of the U.S. foreign aid, Egypt and Israel continued to be the largest ones. However, Iraq turned out to be the largest receiver of American foreign aid in the 2004 financial year, although it has been getting monetary support from America since the middle of 2003, on the ground of reconstruction activities.

The Unites States of America is the biggest doner of foreign economic aid on a global basis, in the form of dollars. However, it has been noticed in recent times that the total amount of foreign aids coming from the U.S. has reduced remarkably, though this process has been continuing slowly and silently for the past many decades. This is perhaps because the 0.2% of the American Gross National Product (GNP), normally represented by foreign aid demands has decreased to extraordinarily small amounts over the past half century.

Organizations handling the U. S. foreign aid:

The responsibility of managing the volume of bilateral financial assistance rests with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The State Department jointly with the Department of Defense (DOD) governs the country's security and military-related issues.
The Treasury Department is entrusted with handling of the bulk of the multilateral aids.
The House and Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations Subcommittees deal with the bills reserving most foreign aid funds.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committees along with the House International Relations, is primarily engaged with the authorization of the American foreign aid programs.
The Millennium Challenge Organization is a newly formed American foreign aid agency, coming into existence in 2004.