You don't often hear politicians concede their mistakes, but that's the pill I'll swallow today, February 13, as a witness before the same foreign affairs congressional panel under which I was previously a subcommittee chair from 2017-2019.

I first came to Congress more than a decade ago to shock the system—a mandate to find and eliminate every possible cent of government excess that failed to deliver value to the economic and national security of the United States. At the very top of my list was foreign aid, which I considered a reckless extravagance that blew precious American tax dollars on vanity projects. I was wrong. It was only after my first foreign congressional delegation trips to Africa and Latin America that I understood that foreign assistance, when structured and deployed correctly, is a uniquely powerful soft diplomacy tool to strengthen the nation's economy and national security. In fact, America’s interests are undermined when aid is poorly contrived and not rigorously evaluated.

Through my oversight of international assistance on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and as the Co-Chair of the Aid Effectiveness Caucus, I eventually came to understand that thoughtfully designed and carefully supervised foreign aid advances U.S. interests by projecting American leadership in a sometimes fractured world, broadening and deepening political alliances and bilateral trade, and countering the influence of our adversaries and other malign actors who mean to do us harm.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that all future international assistance must make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Most Americans would agree with that commonsense instinct. But as the Trump administration undertakes its foreign aid assessment under its wing, only two questions really matter: Does a program align with U.S. economic, national security, and foreign policy priorities? And can it demonstrate efficient values for American tax dollars? In cases where either answer is no, it’s important to identify more effective stewardship that makes America stronger and safer.