[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5171 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5171

 To create a program under which qualified and available United States 
construction workers and appropriate equipment can be sent to Haiti to 
     assist Haitians in the rebuilding of their country after the 
     devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake, as requested by the 
              Government of Haiti, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 28, 2010

 Mr. Gary G. Miller of California introduced the following bill; which 
            was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To create a program under which qualified and available United States 
construction workers and appropriate equipment can be sent to Haiti to 
     assist Haitians in the rebuilding of their country after the 
     devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake, as requested by the 
              Government of Haiti, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ```Partnership With America' Rapid 
Rebuilding of Haiti Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) On January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude 
        earthquake centered approximately 15 miles southwest of the 
        nation's capital, Port-au-Prince.
            (2) Following the initial earthquake came 50 aftershocks, 
        all higher than a magnitude of 4.0, within 24 hours.
            (3) The Government of Haiti reports an estimated 230,000 
        deaths and 300,000 injured.
            (4) Additionally, 1.2 million people have been displaced as 
        a result of the earthquake.
            (5) Damage caused by the earthquake is estimated to be 
        between $8 billion and $14 billion.
            (6) According to an Inter-American Development Bank report, 
        the episode ``. . . is the most destructive event a country has 
        ever experienced when measured in terms of the number of people 
        killed as a share of the country's population''.
            (7) Given the ongoing economic recession in which more than 
        8 million people have lost their jobs in the United States, 
        many qualified construction industry employees in the United 
        States are currently unemployed or significantly underemployed 
        and therefore could be available to provide immediate expertise 
        and labor to facilitate the rapid rebuilding of Haiti.

SEC. 3. PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICA.

    (a) In General.--Not later than the end of the 30-day period 
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
the Treasury, working through the Infrastructure Finance Experts Corps 
of the Office of Technical Assistance, shall develop and begin carrying 
out, together with the Government of Haiti, a program to be called the 
``Partnership With America'' program, under which United States 
construction and reconstruction experts and workers who currently are 
unemployed or significantly underemployed shall begin work in Haiti on 
an organized and coordinated plan to help Haitians rebuild the 
infrastructure of Haiti, including roads, airports, energy facilities, 
schools, hospitals, and other services fundamental to economic 
development, including permanent housing for persons who lost their 
housing because of the earthquake.
    (b) Program Guidelines.--In developing the Partnership With America 
program, the Secretary, working through the Infrastructure Finance 
Experts Corps of the Office of Technical Assistance, shall--
            (1) provide the Congress with an estimate of the funding 
        needs of such program, including proposed funding sources;
            (2) develop a plan for transporting the United States 
        workers and appropriate construction equipment to Haiti;
            (3) develop a plan for the United States workers to mentor 
        Haitian workers while effecting a rapid rebuilding of important 
        Haitian infrastructure to help the country recover from the 
        January 12, 2010, earthquake as quickly as possible while 
        anticipating the needs of a Haitian economy that does not 
        merely return to pre-earthquake levels but grows fast enough to 
        provide jobs for Haitians and raise the overall standard of 
        living in that country;
            (4) ensure that various infrastructure projects are 
        coordinated as well as possible to minimize waste, fraud, and 
        abuse;
            (5) seek to employ to the greatest extent possible United 
        States experts and qualified workers who are unemployed or 
        significantly underemployed, and be flexible enough to cycle 
        workers to and from Haiti in such a way that allows them to 
        return to the United States quickly to fill new jobs, while 
        still completing their stated missions in rebuilding Haiti;
            (6) develop a public-private partnership for effecting the 
        goals of the program, using available Government transportation 
        and logistical resources while providing rapid rebuilding of 
        Haiti using qualified and available American workers;
            (7) establish centers of excellence through which available 
        construction industry experts from the United States provide 
        specialized training to Haitians on construction industry best 
        practices and leading methodologies and technologies to 
        facilitate the transfer of deep expertise, including knowledge 
        on earthquake-resistant infrastructure;
            (8) seek to ensure that the United States workers do not 
        take the place of Haitian workers, but instead supplement, 
        coordinate, and mentor Haitian construction workers, and train 
        them so that an adequate and adequately trained Haitian 
        construction force is left in place to accommodate the hoped-
        for future growth of the Haitian economy;
            (9) include adequate controls to ensure that United States 
        contractors subcontract substantial amounts of work to local 
        Haitian companies; and
            (10) ensure that clear performance metrics and incentives 
        are provided to those entities participating in the program.
    (c) Termination.--The Partnership With America program shall 
terminate on the date that is the end of the 36-month period following 
the date of the enactment of this Act, so the program assists Haiti in 
rebuilding but does not supplant the jobs of Haitians over the longer 
term.
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