House subcommittee urges prompt reauthorization of U.S. International Development Finance Corporation with equity, cap and transparency fixes

The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee opened a hearing Oct. 12 on reauthorizing the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, emphasizing urgency as the agency approaches the end of its seven‑year authorization and nears its current $60 billion lending cap.

Committee leaders and a panel of witnesses told members that a prompt reauthorization should include changes to how DFC counts equity investments, a larger maximum contingent liability, clearer country‑eligibility rules and better coordination with other U.S. development tools to speed deal origination and improve competitiveness with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The hearing chair, Chairwoman Kim, told the panel that “in the fiscal year 2023, the DFC’s revenue exceeded cost by $341,000,000,” and noted the agency’s seven‑year authorization expires in October, raising urgency for Congress to act. Witnesses described a portfolio that has expanded rapidly since the BUILD Act created DFC, and said the statute’s original designers intended equity investments to be scored on a net present value basis rather than treated like dollar‑for‑dollar grants.

Former Rep. Ted Yoho, a panel witness and an author of the BUILD Act, said DFC’s central purpose is to help countries move “from aid to trade.” He and other witnesses argued that the Office of Management and Budget’s current treatment of direct equity…