Witness likens USAID funding oversight to House of Cards in windstorm in call for criminal investigation at House hearing

Middle East Forum Executive Director Gregg Roman says in prepared testimony at a house Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing about foreign aid priorities that USAID's oversight was as weak as a house of cards in a windstorm, likening it to handing out cash in a dark alley and hoping it does not buy trouble, criticized the agency's vetting system as archaic with heavy reliance on self-reported data, no real-time checks, and no teeth, noted that primary grantees were entrusted to vet their own subcontractors even when those grantees might sympathize with radical causes, asserted that in places like Gaza or Sudan, groups with blatant extremist affiliations slipped through because gatekeepers had no incentive or even an ideological desire to shut them out, concluded this was not a glitch but a feature of a broken system caused by bureaucrats now threatening American interests at home and abroad, and emphasized this was not just about fraud, waste, and abuse but a threat to American national security and potentially criminal activity that Congress should address by ensuring the Department of Justice acts.