The Foreign Assistance Act ( , et seq.) is a United States Act of Congress. The Act reorganized U.S. foreign assistance programs and separated military and non-military aid. It also mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic assistance programs; on November 3 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The agency unified already existing U.S. aid efforts, combining the economic and technical assistance operations of the International Cooperation Agency, 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.

This act states that no assistance will be provided to a government which "engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including torture orcruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolongeddetention without charges, causing the disappearance of personsby the abduction and clandestine detention of thosepersons, or other flagrant denial of the right to life,liberty, and the security of person, unless such assistancewill directly benefit the needy people in such country."

This Act was amended in 2004 specific to the treatment of orphans and other vulnerable children. This amendment allows the president to provide aid to the peoples of other countries to look after children in cases of AIDS/HIV and to set up schools and other programs for the advancement of child treatment.

See also

• Alliance for Progress
• Office of Public Safety (OPS)

External links

• Information from USAID

Notes