Randall Tobias Nominated as New Administrator of USAID
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20 Jan 2006
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday is expected to
"unveil a restructuring of U.S. foreign assistance," which in-
cludes the nomination of Randall Tobias as the new administrator
of USAID, the Washington Post reports. Tobias, former chief ex-
ecutive of Eli Lilly and current head of the State Department's
Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, now will have a rank
equal to that of deputy secretary of state and will have a plan-
ning staff at the State Department, according to the Post
(Kessler/Graham, Washington Post, 1/19).
Since its inception in 1961, USAID has been independent, but
Rice "has made little secret of her frustration over what she
has said is a lack of accountability," the New York Times re-
ports (Weisman, New York Times, 1/19). Although the nomination
does not merge USAID and the State Department, the move is meant
to bring USAID closer to the department, officials said. In ad-
dition, Tobias will be given more authority over a variety of
foreign assistance accounts that currently are managed individu-
ally. Some critics oppose the change in responsibilities, saying
that the move could cause greater "politicization" of foreign
aid, the Post reports. However, State officials say that the
change is important to foster more effective, cohesive and fo-
cused spending overseas, according to the Washington Post (Wash-
ington Post, 1/19). Andrew Natsios stepped down last week as ad-
ministrator of USAID. One of his complaints was not having con-
trol over "$5 billion parceled out to programs to fight AIDS,
anti-drug projects, promotion of democracy and military train-
ing," according to the Times (New York Times, 1/19).
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