The U.S. has long been one of the world's largest donors of foreign aid.

But in recent years, its effectiveness has been called into question by a chorus of critics

who say the impact of assistance programs falls well short of their intended goals.

They blame what some have called the aid industrial complex.

Fred de Sam Lazaro begins the first of three reports now.

It's part of his series, Agents for Change.

It is the softer side of American foreign policy and power.

Seen in the world's most distressed places.

Its message from the American people on every bag of grain, every can of cooking oil, on

posters in remote health centers.

And at barely 1 percent of the federal budget, it's a good bargain for the American taxpayer,

says the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID,

the primary conduit for foreign aid.

Americans have so much to be proud of.

At this Senate hearing, Administrator Samantha Power cited one program that has provided

antiretroviral drugs to HIV patients for two decades.

PEPFAR, George W. Bush's tremendous creation, 17 million people alive today, lives saved

because of the generosity of the taxpayer.

But overseas assistance programs have long come under fire from some conservatives,

like Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, who see them as wasteful and misplaced.

We should be conserving our resources, particularly conservative them for our country.

There's not a great deal of evidence that the money that we, you know,

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