It's critical. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing the work, obviously. Where I would draw the distinction, though, and this is one of the things.... The National Endowment for Democracy was created in 1983 as a result of President Reagan's Westminster speech. It's a unique institution in that the funding comes from Congress to us and to three other organizations—the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and the AFL–CIO's Solidarity Center—as well as to a whole host of NGOs and human rights groups funded directly by the endowment. It is money that comes as a congressional appropriation.
The thing that is unique, and it's one of the reasons why CIPE can do what it does...we do not operate at government direction. The policies, procedures, strategies, and projects are all self-generated. The executive branch has an oversight role, and it has an auditing role. We have to coordinate with them, but it isn't the same as if we were being funded by USAID. Having that national endowment—and there are several of them now around the world. The United Kingdom has the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. The European Parliament has for some time been considering it, but I think eventually will create a European head. There are several of these in different countries around the world. The reason that model is so important is that it gives you a certain degree of insularity from the day-to-day policy interests of a particular government, whether that's a government of your flavour or a government of somebody else's flavour. It becomes a much longer-term, strategically driven operation.