The Senate Hearing into USAID's malaria control program was opened by Senator Sam Brownback, who gave a bold piece of testimony about how his staff had sought to probe USAID's operations, but were stonewalled by the Agency at every turn (download his testimony below). Senator Brownback now has introduced a Senate bill to earmark over half of USAID's budget to the procurement of malaria commodities, including principally for indoor residual spraying and Artemisinin-based Combinational Therapies. Africa Fighting Malaira supports this move.
Michael Miller, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID, testified next. Despite the fact that USAID sent a team of six people to the hearings, some basic questions could not be answered, such as the proportion of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) sold versus those distributed for free. USAID's Carlos "Kent" Campbell also testified and defended USAID's malaria budget.
AFM's Roger Bate based his testimony on his research with Ben Schwab into USAID's malaria practices as detailed in The Blind Hydra publised by American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Amir Attaran also made an excellent and forceful presentation, challenging USAID on their failures in malaria control.
You can review the hearing at Senator Tom Coburn's website here:
https://coburn.senate.gov/ffm/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Home&ContentRecord;_id=20330dbc-81bc-4f25-bff0-98c59664922a&Issue;_id
You can download the individual testimonies below:
Senator Sam Brownback's Testimony (PDF)
Professor Amir Attaran Testimony (word document)
Dr Roger Bate's Testimony (word document)
Michael Miller's Testimony (word document)
Carlos Kent Campbell's Testimony (word document)