Green takes foreign aid leader slot under Trump
Ex-congressman describes position as ‘a political safe zone’
WASHINGTON - Roughly a decade after his Wisconsin political career came to an unwelcome end, Mark Green said he’s happy to be watching politics from the outside —in the “cheap seats.”
“These are interesting times to be in politics. I am delighted to be in a nonpolitical” role, said Green, who was picked by President Donald Trump to be his top foreign aid official and assumed the job in early August. He is currently making his first foreign trip in that role, traveling to Sudan and Ethiopia. A former GOP state legislator, Green Bay congressman and losing candidate for governor in 2006, Green is the new administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. It’s the latest stop in a second government career that began in 2007 with the ambassadorship to Tanzania and has been devoted largely to diplomacy and global challenges such as disease and poverty.
As Green suggests, his new job is about as far away from partisan politics as it gets in a presidential administration — overseeing U.S. humanitarian aid and development programs.
“One of the great privileges of the work we do is we’re in a political safe zone,” he said in a recent interview in his downtown Washington office.
Of course, the idea of a “political safe zone” in Washington is very much in question these days. Green is a high-level appointee in a tumultuous presidency that has generated fierce reactions in the U.S. and abroad.
Asked whether he had any qualms when he accepted the job, Green — a collegial, lowkey figure whose appointment drew bipartisan support — deflected the question.
“I went to see the presidentelect in New York. He asked me good questions,” Green said. “I’ve had nothing but support every step of the way.”
Asked if he has any discomfort now with Trump’s rhetoric and the controversy it is generating, Green said his response to
all that is to “refocus” on the work he’s doing.
“You know what that causes me to do, is remind myself and remind the team here how important it is to just be good at what we do,” Green said. “I think the role that we play in American foreign policy is incredibly important and the more that we can focus on the contribution that we can make, I think the better off that we all are.”
In calling his agency a “safe zone,” Green cited the backing foreign aid gets from both parties in Congress and the good work he said presidents in both parties have done in this area. He cited George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
But his agency faces political issues as well. A
“There is not enough to do everything we’d like to do. On the other hand, I’ve had strong expressions of support ... for what our broad plans are.” MARK GREEN HEAD OF USAID
major one is how much money Trump is willing to spend on foreign aid. The president’s preliminary budget plan called for a 40% cut in the USAID budget, which now tops $20 billion. Congress won’t endorse a cut that size, but Green’s budget will almost certainly shrink.
Green’s mantra about foreign aid is that the “purpose of our assistance is to end the need for assistance” by helping other countries do more for themselves. He has vowed to “scrub every dollar” to make sure it is well spent.
“There is not enough to do everything we’d like to do,” Green said. “On the other hand, I’ve had strong expressions of support, including from the secretary (of state) for what our broad plans are,” he said, referring to Rex Tillerson. “He and the president chose me. They know what I stand for and what I want to work on.”
Bipartisan support
Green’s nomination was hailed by aid organizations and by lawmakers in both parties, with Senate Democrats such as Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin’s touting his expertise, track record and commitment to international work.
But at his Senate confirmation hearing, Democrats made it clear they hoped Green would be a counterweight to those in the Trump administration who want to reduce humanitarian and development aid or “withdraw” from global leadership and engagement.
Green’s interest in international work runs deep. His father is from South Africa, his mother is from England, and he lived and taught in Kenya as a young man.
“Africa is very special to me,” Green told his audience at a meat processing plant in Jijiga, Ethiopia, during his Africa trip Wednesday, recounting his ties to the continent. “Each of my children, now grown-up children, has a Kenyan middle name because I wanted them to ask questions about why Africa was special to their mother and father.”
But Green did not aim at first for an international career.
“I can’t say there’s been a grand plan,” Green said in his interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
After he was elected to Congress — in the same class as Democrat Baldwin and current House Speaker Paul Ryan — Green said he was focused on domestic issues until Speaker Dennis Hastert approached him following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and asked him to serve on the international relations committee.
Then he left Congress to run for governor in 2006, outlasting Scott Walker for the GOP nomination but losing in the fall election to incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle in a poor election cycle for Republicans.
He began practicing law back home when President George W. Bush named him ambassador to Tanzania, a post that was followed by stints with groups such as Malaria No More, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and the International Republican Institute.
On his Africa trip, Green promoted a program called Feed the Future, launched under President Barack Obama, to combat global hunger. The aim, he said in Ethiopia, was “promoting longterm sustainable development” to help countries “build their own future and to resist the shocks that are brought on by drought and other natural disasters.”
Asked what he tells people back home who wonder whether U.S. foreign aid is money worth spending, Green said:
“In many places, it is in our national security interest. It’s in our economic interest. And it’s also part of the American character.”