Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alice Albright is set to testify before the Senate Appropriation Committee’s State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee on May 15, 2024.
The hearing, which aims to bolster American competitiveness, will scrutinize President Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget request for various agencies, including the MCC.
Albright, alongside other key figures such as U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) CEO Scott Nathan and President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) Reta Jo Lewis, will defend the budget requests for their respective agencies. The testimony, slated for 2 p.m., will be livestreamed for public viewing.
The requested FY25 budget for MCC amounts to $937 million in discretionary funding, specifically allocated for poverty-reduction initiatives in emerging democracies worldwide. Additionally, President Biden’s budget proposal includes a provision for at least $200 million to be transferred to MCC from a newly proposed International Infrastructure Fund, as part of a broader strategy to competitively engage with China on a global scale.
Moreover, MCC seeks bipartisan and bicameral legislative support for expanding its reach to an additional 30 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. This legislative change would empower MCC to extend its impactful programs to more regions in need.
Established in 2004, the Millennium Challenge Corporation operates as an independent U.S. government development agency with a primary mission to alleviate global poverty through sustainable economic growth. The agency provides time-limited grants that combine investments in infrastructure with targeted policy and institutional reforms, prioritizing countries that demonstrate commitment to good governance, anti-corruption efforts, and democratic principles.
