Plans for USAID’s new Bureau of Policy Planning and Learning are moving ahead, Foreign Policy’s blog, “The Cable” reports.

“This new bureau, bolstered by the agency’s many technical assets, represents an essential step toward achieving President Barack Obama’s and Secretary [Hillary Rodham] Clinton’s vision of regaining USAID’s status as a premier development agency,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah wrote in an email to agency employees on Monday. Lawrence Garber will be the bureau’s acting assistant to Shah. “He has had a long career in development, including as CEO of the New Israel Fund from 2004 to 2009,” according to the blog, which lists some of the people who have already been tapped to fill senior positions (Rogin, 6/7).

According to the National Journal, the bureau will provide “USAID’s perspective on the Department of State’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, the Presidential Study Directive and the fiscal 2012 budget.” Shah’s e-mail “also announced a July science and technology conference of experts organized by the new bureau and another initiative for this fall on improving transparency” (Risen, 6/8).