The more than 9,000 men and women of USAID work to provide effective economic, development, and humanitarian assistance in support of our U.S. foreign policy goals. How we improve our contracting practices, including our contingency contracting practices, directly impacts the success and sustainability of our mission. Accountability to Congress and the U.S. taxpayer for the funds we use to develop successful programs is our duty. And it is a duty that we take very seriously.

Therefore, USAID understands the significance and motivations behind this legislation. It addresses many of the management challenges that were highlighted in the report written by the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), that you, Senator McCaskill, created along with Senator Webb. It also addresses some of the most important issues that we contend with through engagements such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and expect to contend with in a potential future contingency.

Only eight months ago, we celebrated the peaceful separation of South Sudan from Sudan as a sign of great hope for a people who have endured war for the greater part of half a century. We also knew that despite the peaceful referendum, these two nations faced considerable challenges that would not be quickly surmounted, including severe underdevelopment in South Sudan, ranking it at the bottom of most development indices, and a series of unresolved disputes. However, we are deeply concerned at the re-emerging conflicts in the region that are undermining hopes for a peaceful pathway for these two new nations and that are creating grave new humanitarian crises. Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, Abyei, Jonglei: each of these areas has been plunged into uncertainty and suffering for a wide range of preventable reasons and requires a wide range of assistance to meet the needs of the people who live there. Unresolved conflict in Darfur has made a permanent impact on the livelihoods of the region, and we still see over one and a half million people displaced. In South Sudan, rising intercommunal conflict, the steady and potentially increasing flow of returns, and the Government of South Sudan's recent decision to cut off oil production, effectively suspending the flow of 98 percent of state revenues, have heightened our concern for the future stability and long-term health of the world's newest nation.

Before I begin I would like to take a moment to offer our deepest condolences on the loss of your friend and colleague, Congressman Donald Payne. There have been few greater friends of USAID than Congressman Payne, and he will be greatly missed. His legacy, however, will live on for years to come.

Thank you Chairman Cardin, Ranking Member Lugar, and members of the Committee. I am honored to join you to discuss the President's fiscal year 2013 budget request for USAID.