Pence Demands USAID Break Through Bureaucratic Gridlock to Help Iraqi Christians, Yazidis

Incensed over bureaucratic attempts to thwart a direct White House executive order, Vice President Mike Pence is dispatching U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green to Iraq to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars are going to help save Christian and Yazidi communities decimated by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Pence issued the announcement Friday afternoon after waiting months for USAID to comply with a promise he issued during a dinner last October.

"President Trump and Vice President Pence made restoring the rights and property of Iraq's Christian and Yazidi communities, who were nearly wiped out by ISIS's genocidal campaign against them, a top and unceasing priority of this administration," Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said in a statement Friday afternoon.

"The vice president will not tolerate bureaucratic delays in implementing the administration's vision to deliver the assistance we promised to the people we pledged to help," she added.

The Vice President, she said, has directed USAID Administrator Mark Green to travel to Iraq in the coming weeks to report back with an "immediate comprehensive assessment addressing issues that could delay the process of aid distribution."

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