Budget Hearing – Trade and Investment Agencies

who we partner with. Our programs are time-bound, and we require greater measures of accountability and cost sharing. In short, we have a twenty-two year track record of unlocking growth, opening new markets, and creating opportunities for American firms. Congress has championed this results-oriented approach, and we're grateful for your support in fy twenty seven which will allow mcc to leverage new authority working in a wider set of countries bringing our resources to bear where they matter most in recent months our board of directors has selected five new partners across the indo-pacific and western hemisphere we're excited to be back working closer to home in countries like guatemala bolivia and ecuador as well as key countries in the pacific such as fiji and tonga Under the Trump administration, we're leaning into key sectors such as energy, ports, and securing our supply chains. We're engaging with the US private sector earlier and more often, linking our programs more closely to private sector needs, and ensuring that we're generating American returns. And we're collaborating with our inter-agency partners to better leverage our unique strengths. This close coordination is essential if we are to reach the scale and the speed to tackle common challenges and effectively counter china this complimentary approach is on full display in countries such as the philippines last week i traveled to manila where we signed a sixty million dollar threshold program during the luzon economic corridor investor forum convened by our friends at ustda and the state department mcc has partnered with the philippines before strengthening tax administration to generate revenue and reduce corruption we've also rehabilitated twen uh two hundred and twenty-two kilometers of roads, connecting communities to commerce and providing a lifeline during typhoon season. We're proud to be back working with an important treaty ally. With last week's signing, we're poised to modernize their national regulatory body that controls public and private investment in the energy sector. In doing so, MCC is filling a much needed gap that underpins our collective efforts in the Philippines. unlocking economic growth to shoring up our security to creating opportunities to export us technology this focus on aligning public policies with private sector needs is central to our approach in the western hemisphere as well in guatemala we're seeking to improve transportation master planning and the government's ability to effectively deliver large infrastructure projects this supports the army corps of engineers uh plans to reduce delays and expand the port of quetzal and aligns key corridors critical to us exports and supply chains. In Ecuador, we are pursuing infrastructure upgrades to support acute needs in the energy sector and address aspects of their policy environment. Rolling blackouts, rigid labor, and legal frameworks have long hampered Ecuador's ability to attract investment despite their use of their dollar and a renewed alignment with united states. beyond individual deals to unlock growth the private sector needs efficient operating and regulatory environments. They want stability, they want predictability, and they want a level playing field. And this is what MCC does best. I thank you for the opportunity to be here today and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Coleman. Thank you, Chairman Diaz-Balart, Ranking Member, Frankel, and the distinguished members of the committee. for the opportunity to appear before you today on behalf of the hundreds of dedicated professionals at the US International Development Finance Corporation, who are, who advance our mission every day. I would be remiss not to give a shout-out to the many friendly faces of the congressional committee staff in the room. Um, it's been an honor to work with you all and I very much appreciate the partnership.

Friendly faces.

Since our establishment in twenty nineteen, DFC has benef- benefitted from strong bipartisan support. And we remain grateful for the committee for its enduring partnership, as we pursue our mission to advance US foreign policy goals and drive meaningful economic development impact for our allies and partners. This is a time of unprecedented global competition. As America's adversaries weaponize economic tools against us, President Trump and Congress have called on the DFC to restore US economic security and make an impact globally. December's reauthorization empowered DFC to mobilize capital with the discipline and scale this moment demands. It raised our investment capacity to two hundred and five billion dollars, opened strategically significant sectors across nearly all international geographies, and equipped us to deploy a comprehensive suite of financial products to facilitate mobilization of private capital at scale. We are grateful for the fiscal year twenty twenty seven resources provided to DFC and the House Bill that further our ability to responsibly use our investment authorities, execute on our pipeline and steward our growing growing portfolio. DFC offers a cost-effective approach to achieving a significant impact. Since our inception D- uh inception, DFC has returned over seven hundred and thirty-five million dollars to the US taxpayer and we remain committed to this fiduciary duty. Over the last nineteen months, TFC has built a pipeline of hundreds of investments, totaling nearly a hundred billion dollars across agriculture, healthcare, financial services, energy, technology and telecommunications, logistics and infrastructure, and critical minerals and geographies, uh, most vital to US interests. Every transaction is sourced and screened against consistent standards confronting uh adversary influence connecting projects to American allied markets promoting economic development and catalyzing the private sector for example DFC six hundred million dollar contribution to our critical minerals consortium with Orion resource partners confronts China's seventy percent gap on critical minerals refinery through a durable public-private partnership furthermore the US Ukraine reconstruction investment fund applies a similar playbook to a different context by mobilizing private investment for Ukraine's recovery while creating openings for American firms to lead the rebuild. DFC's transactions translate directly to tangible outcomes for our partners. We measure success not just in the number of deals we execute, but in the economic and development impact of each transaction. In fiscal year twenty twenty-five monitoring cycle, DFC's projects delivered over uh two hundred and seventy five thousand new energy connections in kenya improve sanitation for two point two million homes in india and create hundreds of thousands of jobs across nigeria brazil ecuador egypt and vietnam looking ahead our one point five billion dollar commitment to south and southeastern asia for energy infrastructure will be will bring reliable electricity to millions more Simultaneously, DFC has modernized its investment process to mirror best-in-class peers. We have accelerated decision-making timeline, sharpened diligences processes, and launched an independent evaluation of our portfolio. To support the elevated standard, we continue to recruit top-tier talent. With the resources this administration has requested and Congress has generously provided DFC is positioned to deliver on its mandate. advancing US foreign policy priorities, and driving meaningful economic development and impact for our allies and partners. Our adversaries have spent decades embedding themselves across strategic supply chains and regions, countering them, demand sustained budgetary support, and a deliberate, decisive capital allocation strategy that DFC is built to provide. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to answering your questions.

thank you all thank you all for your testimony before proceeding just let folks know that looks like we're dealing with an audio issue this morning uh so i understand that the entire hearing with audio uh will be posted online after the hearing so again apologies for the uh the technical issues on the audio that we're having this morning uh i will call members uh in the usual sense the way we always do it uh each member will have five minutes for questions and responses and i anticipate ranking member and i anticipate that we will have enough time for two rounds of questions so let me begin the uh the us philippine alliance is clearly a cornerstone of stability but also security alright in southern asia as part of our commitment to that alliance and enduring economic presence in the region secretary rubio recently announced united states commitment to working with the philippines on several critical infrastructure energy uh and technology projects now in my in my opening statement i mentioned the luzon luzon economic quarter which is a trilateral initiative of the us japan the philippines which aims to really catalyze the the economic growth along the quarter and you mentioned it couple of you mentioned it connecting subeck bay clark manila batangas uh the lec investment form hosted by the tda manila appears i mean clearly appears to be a a notable success uh in terms of overwhelming demand for participation can each of you briefly describe the role your agencies are playing in this effort also if you can note a few examples of success highlight uh what you hope to see going forward and potentially um you know some of the uh the issues that you're running into and so if each of you want you wanna start with mister hardy

thank you very much um the philippines has been a cornerstone of ustda's work in the indo-pacific region um we have been fortunate to have extremely good partners with both the government but as importantly with the private sector the philippines uh the philippines has a robust private sector um to that end ustda is one of the first movers in uh when the luzon economic corridor was launched a couple of years back supporting the uh railway that's going to connect subex to batangas um based upon those early investments we've now made commitments for aviation security upgrade upgrade just last week um working with the private concessionaire um at the uh main airport in manila working with the private sector again helping them think through their strategy for deployment of small module reactors as they look to both uh new power generation as well as heat processing for their industry industrial base that's going to generate power on and uh jobs for the philippine people um and lastly um sorry and those are the two or three major projects we have going in the philippines uh looking backwards um we work very successfully with um helping uh move chinese huawei technology out of uh the main uh pldt network and put uh supported cisco's efforts to uh deploy the us technology in the uh pldt network in the philippines i think that's a unique opportunity where ustda was able to specifically get in and advocate and support uh us technology that allowed uh philippines to make a concerted effort to move away from huawei technology into a us trusted solution

mcc has a long history in the philippines as well uh i mentioned earlier we had a previous compact there that strengthened tax administration and reduced corruption that generated hundreds of millions of dollars through uh efficiencies at the bureau of internal revenue we also uh built a two hundred and twenty-two kilometer road uh that was critical it withstood uh typhoon hayan the quality of the mcc's infrastructure and provided uh an essential lifeline for recovery efforts uh island the island of samar we've seen uh going back and evaluating our work up to four hundred percent increase in traffic flows on that road uh which speaks to the uh commerce and the connectivity that mcc can help provide we're back there uh again we just signed last week a sixty million dollar threshold program this is focused on both national and local energy sector regulatory reform at a national level the uh electricity regulatory commission that governs public-private investment in the sector uh is inefficient and we're gonna help streamline that. At a local level there's overlapping mandates uh in inefficiencies and operations there and we're gonna be doing some pilot projects as well as opportunities for blended finance for US tech in partnerships specifically with the development finance corporation.

Thank you, Chairman. The Indo-Pacific region overall is vital to our mission here at And frankly, we haven't been doing enough in that region. Currently, our portfolio sits at five five billion dollars across the entire Indo-Pacific region. But I'm very excited about the go-forward strategy within DFC, because our pipeline has already over doubled that, and currently sits at thirteen billion dollars for for for that strategic region. For the Philippines in particular, we're really excited about our new investment, which is a joint venture partnership with the private sector entity Isquare to promote ener- energy infrastructure across the region. It's the largest ever transaction done at the DFC, totaling one point five billion dollars. Specifically, when it comes to the Philippines, why I'm excited for this joint venture is because as you know very well, Chairman, our adversaries dominate the energy sector within the Philippines. Some of the the key pipeline transactions we are evaluating with our partners ISQUIR is to promote energy security within the Philippines and I'm very much looking forward to uh what we can do in this partnership to help out our our allied partners

thank you let me now recognize uh the distinguished uh ranking members

here we go

thank you mr. chair so uh let me just reiterate that that the uh it's been a long-standing bipartisan support for what you all do there has been a little divergence in philosophy in terms of how uh the united states should treat other countries and partnerships and so forth and uh the the president seems to have taken a a very hard when he calls it american first position and uh which worries some of us because it seems to be for immediate gain for united states but it is contrary to really long-term stability and prosperity for our country and for our partners and that's why i really wanted to talk uh to you all about first with df c there was a an expansion of your mission uh which which allows investment in wealthier countries including uh in energy and critical minerals and i just wanna say there was not bipartisan uh support for that i just make that clear and it sorta got snuck into the ndia which a lot of us support but not necessarily that position um and so this is uh my my question to you and then also mr. petri i think you said something to the effect also of a shift towards uh a private american first there was something uh i'm gonna have you explain that to me but uh first mister coleman how are you ensuring that the new investments don't crowd out financing for lower income uh countries how are you gonna measure the impact and uh what what are the safeguards that gonna ensure the local communities benefit without environmental and social harms with this new expansion.

thank you reiki member uh frankel for that really important question and frankly it's very much top of mind um i want to assure you that dfc is very much focused on its mission to promote investments in low income countries uh just this year alone sixty eight percent of all of our investments have been in low income or low middle income countries Furthermore, when I when I mentioned that a hundred billion dollar pipeline that we are building, less than four percent is in wealthy countries. So we remain we remain very committed to our role and our responsibility to really promote economic development and uh uh development in these low income countries. When you uh you raise a very good point when we talk about environmental and social safeguards and what we're really looking to do to ensure that. And I think that approach is twofold, both. what are we doing to uh for those safeguards during the time of capital deployment and then what are we doing post capital deployment as well to really make sure whatever impact we underwrote is actually effectuated so we are building uh further further building up our office of development policy which is uh home to our environmental and social group that both um underwrites every single transaction as a part of every single do deal we do here at the dfc And then also our monitoring capabilities to ensure that we have more effective portfolio uh management to make sure whatever impact we underwrote is being effectuated.

So, and and just to reiterate, the reason it's important is because when countries become an unstable, there's no economic hope, it really is a recipe for potential terror terrorist activity. Uh, just the other two gentlemen, if you wanna respond to that.

yeah mcc was founded with a single question in mind and that is how do we unlock growth growth that is good for our partners and growth that is good for the united states we conduct a cost benefit analysis on every single compact uh we look to generate an economic rate of return of at least ten percent uh we don't just use this as a decision making tool in the beginning uh but we won't begin a project unless we're seeing that meaningful value for dollar independent evaluators uh then go back after the fact and see if we lived up to what we said we're gonna do and we publish those results online so we can be transparent and learn about uh the work that we've done and how we can improve we're looking to bring that same level of rigor in approaching american returns and measuring them and so we're looking at that in three different aspects uh one is benefits to us exports uh the second is benefits to us firms operating in these markets and the third uh is increased resilience in our supply chains of course there are broader uh strategic benefits that i think we all understand that are a little bit more uh intangible but this is where we are trying to add some more precision so we haven't stepped away from the initial mandate it's about being sharper and being more intentional about how we can drive mutual prosperity

thank you did you wanna add something

thank you thank you thank you member frankel um i think i wanna be clear us t da has remained uh steadfast to its statutory mission um under that uh us t d a has not backed off in any way in its uh due diligence on both environmental or labor standards in any investment us t d a is making us t d a plays an important role in the project design project development so we are helping to move these projects to financing and i think that's a critical point the financing won't come if less we have projects that meet labor and environmental standards that are top of class i think that is the role of ustda is to make sure that the investments and the partners we have around the world in critical minerals but in every sector meet high labor and environmental standards so they can get financing in the capital markets um i think the capital markets banks that's one of their creating issues that they're gonna look at so our job is to make sure that that's done right from the very beginning so our partners overseas can get the financing they need to implement these projects.

thank you very much you're back

mr. vice chairman

thank you mr. chair mr. hardy as uh i've had an opportunity to travel to many countries uh with this committee and others one of the largest criticisms that i hear of china is that uh they tend to go in and make easy deals with countries in a form of what i would consider loan sharking and then at some point begin to extort those countries uh in a way to become more aligned uh with china then with the us uh is there anything you can advise congress to what we might do to uh prevent that type of behavior

thank you i i concur with your assessment we i personally see that everywhere we go and that is the statutory role of us t d a which is to help american companies get in these markets and what that means more often than not is to push out uh predatory chinese companies state owned enterprises that are providing uh low cost loans that are making our partners bold into uh the prc um i think the support that this committee has provided to the agencies here including us t d a is very helpful. i think under this administration we've worked very closely with the state department to coordinate um through the eeb bureau and all of the regional bureaus to make sure that we are all working collectively to advance us national security interest but also do it in a way with that's clear eyed um recognizing the risks we have and recognizing the risks that our partners have uh if we don't get this right and we don't provide an alternative um that is financeable that provides them long-term economic stability without uh all the bells and whistles of the chinese ask in in return

so how how do we do that specifically what can what what can congress do to assist you

um i i think at the end of the day it's the importance of this committee in the appropriations process providing the funding i think uh one of the areas that us t d a has been very very appreciative of is our partnership with the state department's uh not only the appropriate money that this committee provides us t d a but state department likewise provides a significant amount of money uh to us t d a through transfer funds um to uh challenge the chinese particularly in the indo-pacific across the indo-pacific and even more recently in the pacific island region an area where us t d a had historically not worked now we have um programming in twelve countries across uh uh across indo uh pacific island region um that is uh at the front lines of um chinese engagement uh whether it's uh first islands uh south china sea part of our work is to make sure that we are offering alternative to our partners and if we look at the pacific islands it's an area where the us government had not historically been i think that is dramatically change that started under president trump's first administration continued through president biden's and remains a high priority um i've traveled uh uh with secretary landau on a number of occasions he has taken a particular interest in the pacific islands and making sure that us investment by all of us is coordinated to meet the needs of our partners

thank thank thank you for that more detailed answer uh to shift gears just a little bit uh, the US Trade and Development Agency has historically reported an export multiplier showing how many dollars of US exports are generated for every dollar the agency invests. Can you walk us through the process of how your team verifies that those exports might not have occurred without our federal assistance?

Sure, um, let me just walk through begin how we do it, and then uh the counterfactual. for us t da we have a monitoring evaluation staff on-site we have two external private companies that do independent evaluations of us t da's work to evaluate the development outcomes as well as us exports both and that's the the basis so we have internal staff and independent contractors working with our internal staff to do that evaluation um for us t da we are in the different most difficult markets around the world we are opening markets for companies that may not otherwise know about the opportunities um it's a difficult counterfactual to prove um but when you look at the countries in which we operate you don't see a lot of us company engagement i think that's the purpose of ustda is to speed up um or to open up markets for companies to be sure there are a number of projects that we are straight helping american companies win and displace china i think uh and russia for that matter i think when i look at uh some of the work we did at the beginning of president biden's term there was a carryover from president trump on uh nuclear development in poland um poland was going to deploy nuclear energy um the question is were they gonna use a russian solution or a us solution us tda stepped in and made sure that they went with the

uh

so um whether or not uh it was gonna happen or not it wasn't guaranteed that the us companies were gonna be benefiting a result of it and that's where we stepped in and made a difference

congratulations on and thank you uh for for that mister chair i'll yield back

thank you

miss ming you're recognized

thank you mister chairman and ranking member franco uh thank you for being here all of you um earlier this month nepal and tibet were hit by a devastating natural disaster caused by a glacier collapse as of this week almost four hundred fourteen hundred people have been confirmed dead and over five thousand are still missing the us government has had a presence in places like nepal for a long time and has led previous disaster responses this time our response was slow just five hundred thousand dollars and one person on the ground initially after democrats in congress called for more resources the state department has now provided over five million dollars to date not enough but a a stronger response the us is also helping with forensic support water sanitation and hygiene resources and search and rescue i am proud to represent a strong nepali community in queens new york who have watched the situation unfold with great concern and many have loved ones who were affected your agencies have each worked in nepal the millennium challenge corporation has been implementing a compact agreement with nepal to strengthen its electric and transportation systems consistent with us interests this compact came under scrutiny during the foreign assistance review and was reportedly cancelled before being reinstated um mister petri can you confirm uh the status of this compact agreement and if it remains active

thank you congresswoman uh the pictures from nepal were heartbreaking and i share um your concern mcc has had a presence in nepal for a number of years now uh developing and implementing a compact and we remain committed uh to doing so uh fortunately our uh staff and our partners on the ground uh were immediately uh safe which is good uh we did see some impacts to access roads and other things to the large infrastructure that mcc is pursuing there uh in short nepal has a a huge potential for hydropower tremendous energy needs mcc is building out three hundred and fifteen kilometers of high voltage transmission lines uh we're also making improvements in uh using technology for some road uh upgrades as well we remain committed to that work uh in fact uh in just a few weeks uh uh subject of course to the dynamics on the ground in nepal we're looking energize a uh spur of the a hundred uh three hundred and fifteen kilometers which connects with india which is gonna facilitate uh some some uh greater trade within the region so we're proud of our work in nepal we remain committed to seeing that through

great and mister coleman the dfc has also helped build nepal's electricity and hydropower infrastructure how many active projects does the agency currently have in nepal and can you please describe the work that's being done

thank you congresswoman uh first and foremost i echo uh the sentiment thoughts and prayers over this devastation that that has happened in in nepal and tibet um and while our response as the us government was slow i'm very confident there is a lot of ground we can make up very very quickly here um i would like to start by saying you are clearly the expert when it comes to to these geographies i would very much welcome my staff and i coming over and having a discussion on uh what are the projects you are hearing about and how we can utilize our private sector relationships to aid in this recovery overall additionally speaking while our current portfolio within those two geographies is small we remain very committed to building our pipeline this is where partnerships with my friends over at mcc are so valuable because mcc often lays the groundwork for projects that dfc can then bring private sector to invest in so dan and i are very coordinated on a lot of projects and a lot of

great thank you and then uh final few seconds uh mister hardy if you could also share about the us t da s uh work in nepal

um uh thank you historically we have not had a significant program in nepal i will say i have a senior member of my staff on en route to nepal right now to look at energy projects so it is an area that we are looking to change uh or an area that we are hoping to change our direction, but historically we have not had a significant program in Nepal, but we do have a senior member uh of my staff headed there right now to help develop energy projects.

That's great. I would love to uh work with you all on that. Thank you so much.

Most definitely.

I yield back.

Thank you, I would be remiss if I didn't thank you also for your leadership in keeping the spotlight on that. Uh, Mr. Alford, your recognizer.

Alright. Thank you, Chair, and uh thank you uh, Ranking Member, Franco. Kind of missed you guys. Good to have everyone back together again. And thank you for our witnesses, uh, being here today. I I really appreciate that. The agencies before us today sit at the intersection of our economic security and national security. And the decisions that you make help determine whether American companies can compete around the world or whether Communist China and other strategic competitors are allowed to dominate critical minerals, infrastructure, energy and other industries. uh, that are so vital to our future. I believe every taxpayer dollar we spend overseas must advance a clear American interest. It should support American workers and businesses, strengthen trusted partners, secure our supply chains, and reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries. These programs cannot simply spend money for the sake of spending money. We must, and we need to, target investments, uh, measure results, and have accountability to the American taxpayers. Mister Hardy, current law generally limits USTDA to developing in middle income countries, but our competition with China does not stop at an arbitrary income threshold. There are strategically important markets where critical minerals, energy, infrastructure, and emerging technologies have direct implications for US national security. Are USTDA's current eligibility rules keeping us on the sidelines uh projects where china is aggressively competing

thank you congressman um there is that challenge um you're you're most certainly right um when a country uh moves from a middle income country to a high income country us tda is forced to remove itself um that does not change china china is still there and we're um putting ourselves as at a disadvantage both economically and commercially by not being there um for us t d i think it's important to note when we look at high income country uh when we look at that threshold it's those countries that are recently tipped over the countries the big countries in western europe and the gulf states they don't need or want us t d a where it is critically important are those countries that have arbitrarily tipped over from twelve thousand dollars on the world bank income status to twelve thousand and one dollar on the world bank income status and all of a sudden we are removed China is not and we uh are off the playing field.

If Congress were to offer some sort of flexibility to operate in higher income countries especially when they've like you say tipped over to that next uh level um when there is a clear US national security interest where could the authority make the biggest difference?

Um, for there's two areas, um, primarily I think uh in small markets uh look at the pacific island region you have countries that have a very very very small population and it's very easy for them to become a high income country based on world bank standard but when you go to their country it is not a high income country it's a very very develop developing economy um that is an area that i think is of grave concern for us tda small small island economies um the second is eastern europe um there is significant competition uh in the particularly in the energy space with russia

moldova romania

yes russia china um and if we're not there russia and china will dominate that space unless we are there to be able to provide support for american companies american technologies particularly in the energy space

yeah we just returned from a trip to moldova in ukraine and we saw that firsthand they're linking with romania now on an energy uh system and and one of their big concerns is uh influence from um russia basically so mister coleman i have a minute left uh congress recently made a significant investment in dfc's ability you mentioned this uh increasing uh the maximum contingent liability from sixty billion to two hundred and five billion with that greater authority should come greater expectations for results how are you using that expanded capacity to secure critical minerals energy resource and supply chains where we are currently dependent on communist

Thank you, Congressman. And first off, I want to echo your uh sentiments of being stewards of a U uh US American taxpayer dollars and the need for not investing for the sake of investing, but to really make a dedicated impact with our investments. As you know very well, we're in an economic competition with our adversaries, and unfortunately, we have been losing for far too long. Critical supply chains are controlled by our adversaries. And this is best shown on the critical minerals issue that we're all very cutely aware of. Uh, for example, in rare earths processing, China has a ninety percent dominance overall in the industry. Our recent investments, such as Eclera, CMC, Cerro Verde and Cera, are examples of how DFC is utilizing its new authorities to help tackle this critical supply chain issue. But we are not doing our job at the DFC if we're not being forward-thinking, and thinking about what are those next choke points that we must uh be stopping uh our adversaries from advancing into telecom and helping facilitate the move to trusted vendors um from non-trusted uh technologies healthcare particularly the pharmaceutical manufacturing supply chain where china has a dominance on apis and ksm manufacturings and specialty inputs things like chemicals and fertilizers that are critical chokepoints in today So we very much look forward to working with this committee to continue the support of how can we target these choke points that China has a dominance on together.

Thank you, sir. And I'm I apologize for going over. I yield back.

Thank you, sir. Important questions. Congressman Torres, you're recognized.

Um, thank you, uh, Chairman and Ranking Member for bringing us together and to our guests, thank you so much for being here today. Uh, mister Petrie, I in the second round I look forward to hearing more about, um, what your organization is doing to help um with infrastructure development to bring to assist indigenous um people of the americas um i wanna thank you uh mister coleman i was recently visited a project in kenya zip line it is a project that um your uh uh dfc invested about a hundred and fifty million dollars in in africa and i i i'm just astonished um by the work that is being done in that project and i mean it is american money very very well spent and i would love to see how we can incorporate something like that during natural uh disasters here in the us to help uh bring medicine and other resources uh to american families. in areas that have been devastated um right now i do wanna go uh more into um this committee one of the priorities in this committee i mean we are um partners we very much appreciate our partnership with ukraine um against the russian aggression i i'm interested in learning more about the us ukraine reconstruction investment fund that you are leading uh the fund is meant to be about both securing critical supply chains and bringing about reconstruction which is stuff to do uh during a war an active war can you give us a sense of how much is for critical minerals and resource extraction and how much is for other sectors and which which sectors are our priorities

thank you congresswoman um and first of all i'm really glad to hear about your experience with the kenyuh project it's a fantastic project and frankly that's all due to my amazing building for for for that investment um and furthermore if you have any upcoming travel please let us know and we'd love to connect you with kind of our investments in those countries to to help aid your visits

thank you

of course

sure

um europe is a massive success i like i like to call it um it's really a first of its kind vehicle with partnership with uh with our with our Um, I'm really, really um impressed with our team at the DFC, what were they able to achieve with this. In less than a year, they were able to set up this fund with all the back office, bank accounts, and the functions to apply by kind of best in class private sector standards for how it operates. And we made our first investment in March of uh of uh this past year. When you think about the mission, which is really how can we bring more stability to the private sector, This Eurof vehicle is a very innovative tool kit and we're seeing immense private sector engagement. To date, we have had have had over three hundred submissions um to uh this fund. Um we're having a board um in early October where I think we're gonna announce three or four more transactions, which we're looking forward to sharing with you. And um I want to highlight maybe a mischaracterization. It's not just a critical minerals fund. It targets a variety of different sectors. How do you prioritize?

those that funding though and and how do we ensure that politically connected people don't get to cut at the front of the line

Absolutely. Um, the prioritization is what is the greatest need and the greatest impact for for the investment. So the majority of our portfolio right now within Europe is for the energy sector, which is the most critical that we see within Ukraine. Um, we're actually taking a a project to our board, DFC's board today, that is a joint DFC Europe board in the energy sector.

Will you commit to sharing with Congress, uh, quarterly details from the Ukraine fund transactions?

Absolutely. We can share as much much detail as you want regarding what we are doing within the pipeline once that investment has been made and has been. publicly available um post it so we can follow up post our our board in october with you and your staff to share what that next round of

yeah

investments are

yes i would love to hear more about this equity uh stake structure that you have set up so

absolutely

not a lot of time left but um thank you i look forward to the second round

thank you so much um let me let me throw this out to to the three of you your agencies are are heavily involved in in really administrative wide uh efforts to diversify and strengthen us supply chains and we've had a lot of you've had some questions about that and obviously it's a huge issue for a lot of issues but including strategic critical minerals uh we know that the dfc is investing heavily heavily in mining processing transportation to really break the our adversarial control over strategic supply chains and i think i think the american people now have realized how important that is uh but in meanwhile the tda and the ccr also prioritizing key sectors right integral to us supply chain security so as we look forward to fy twenty seven and and the appropriations process can the three of you assure the committee but actually more importantly the american taxpayer that uh that these important efforts are coordinated they're complimentary and they're not just duplicative of other agencies of other uh other issues so maybe if you all wanna just touch on that let's let's start with you this time mr. coleman

thank you chairman um we completely agree it is of the utmost importance for all of the us government economic agencies to be stewards of america taxpayer dollars in making sure we are investing uh correctly with all of our with all of it congress has uh granted all of these economic agencies a variety of different authorities and because of your guys's leadership they're not duplicative in nature and effectively they they help complement each other i like to point out to the example uh mister hardy was talking about within within poland for example uh the nuclear technology that uscda was really on the forefront of helping lay the groundwork in we have active pipeline investments within poland and this nuclear energy to further continue promoting this so it's a very coordinated effort amongst all of the parties at this table as well as eximbank osc uh lpo as well to make sure we're targeting these supply chains and connecting the dots um together as a us government approach instead of an individual agency approach

mcc uh has about one point three billion dollars currently in our portfolio that's contributing uh to critical minerals us supply chain uh priorities uh connor you mentioned uh sour resources earlier i think that's a good example of the close coordination that's in mozambique uh dfc is supporting mining operations mcc is building out the roads and transport corridors and uh the uh region of northern mozambique that's connecting to the port of nincala where things like graphite are being shipped and processed for batteries in louisiana in vidalia louisiana just north of baton rouge uh so this is a a whole of agency effort in terms of uh securing our supply chain from the beginning to the end

thank you uh mr. chairman i us t d is a small agency we work tirelessly to make sure that what we're doing is additive uh to our partners making sure that the work we're doing is tied uh and is designed in a way that feeds into the pipelines of dfc xm into financiers um and and it's really critical for everything we do to work with our partners one to make sure we're not wasting our money if someone else is putting money into something similar but also doing it in a way that is designed to feed into the financing pipeline of the xm and dfc so we move these projects forward i think one area on uh coordination is worth pointing out um is the unique role that indo-pacific command has taken to look at the indo-pacific region writ large and look at commercial opportunities and economic development in markets around the indo-pacific and working closely with us tda to help move these uh commercial infrastructure projects forward um indo-pacific command is looking to us to help strengthen these economies to uh be better positioned to support uh us national security interest from a commercial perspective that it's been great to work with their economic development unit