[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1154 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1154

    To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide for the 
  establishment of a Microenterprise Development Fund, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                June 24 (legislative day, June 22), 1993

 Mr. DeConcini introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
             referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide for the 
  establishment of a Microenterprise Development Fund, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT.

    Chapter 2 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is 
amended by adding after title V the following:

                ``title vi--microenterprise development

``SEC. 251. MICROENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT.

    ``(a) Centrally-Managed Fund.--
            ``(1) Establishment and management.--The administrator of 
        the agency primarily responsible for administering this part 
        shall establish within the agency a centrally-managed fund to 
        be known as the Microenterprise Development Fund (hereafter in 
        this section referred to as the `Fund'). The Fund shall be 
        managed by the office in that agency that has primary 
        responsibility for working with private and voluntary 
        organizations.
            ``(2) Disbursements through the fund.--All economic support 
        fund assistance and development assistance that are used to 
        promote microenterprise development shall be disbursed through 
        the Fund.
    ``(b) Activities To Be Supported.--The Fund shall be used to 
support--
            ``(1) the institutional development of the entities 
        described in subsection (c);
            ``(2) the provision of microenterprise credit through the 
        entities described in subsection (c); and
            ``(3) research on microenterprise development and 
        evaluation of microenterprise activities funded under this 
        section.
    ``(c) Intermediary Organizations.--Funds disbursed through the Fund 
shall be primarily channeled through--
            ``(1) United States and indigenous private and voluntary 
        organizations,
            ``(2) United States and indigenous credit union 
        organizations, and
            ``(3) other indigenous governmental and nongovernmental 
        organizations,
that have demonstrated a capacity to develop sustainable 
microenterprise service institutions.
    ``(d) Allocation of Funds.--
            ``(1) Microenterprise credit.--(A) Of amounts disbursed 
        through the Fund each fiscal year pursuant to subsection 
        (b)(2), at least 50 percent shall be used for poverty lending. 
        As used in this paragraph, the term `poverty lending' means a 
        loan of $300 or less or, in the case of an initial loan, of 
        $150 or less.
            ``(B) The administrator of the agency primarily responsible 
        for administering this part shall seek to ensure that not less 
        than 60 percent of the borrowers of funds disbursed through the 
        Fund pursuant to subsection (b)(2) are women.
            ``(2) Research and evaluation.--Not more than 5 percent of 
        funds disbursed through the Fund each fiscal year may be used 
        for research and evaluation activities under subsection (b)(3).
    ``(e) Additional Sources of Financing.--Such agency is authorized 
to facilitate negotiations between such organizations and multilateral 
development banks so that such organizations may obtain additional 
financing.

``SEC. 252. DEFINITIONS.

    ``For purposes of this title--
            ``(1) the term `development assistance' means assistance 
        provided under chapter 1 or chapter 10 of this part; and
            ``(2) the term `economic support fund assistance' means 
        assistance provided under chapter 4 of part II.''.

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