1.This Act may be cited as
the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund
Act
.
2.Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)The 7.3-magnitude
earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010—
(A)was Haiti’s worst
natural catastrophe in 200 years;
(B)caused the deaths
of more than 200,000 people;
(C)destroyed 105,000
homes, 50 hospitals and health centers, and 1,300 school and university
buildings; and
(D)significantly
damaged the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, and most of
the other government buildings in the capital city of Port-au-Prince.
(2)Even before the
earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,
with—
(A)80 percent of the
population living below the poverty line;
(B)54 percent of the
population in abject poverty; and
(C)more than
2/3 of the labor force believed to lack formal
employment.
(3)Although Haiti’s
per capita gross domestic product is among the world’s lowest, positive
economic growth trends were slowly emerging before the earthquake and Haiti was
1 of 2 Caribbean countries expected to experience positive economic growth in
2009.
(4)At a March 2010
meeting convened in Haiti by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United
Nations, which brought together Haitian government and private sector leaders
to discuss the country’s most critical needs, meeting participants agreed that
2 critical catalysts for creating potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs
are—
(A)modernizing
Haitian policies and infrastructure; and
(B)improving the
flow of foreign private investment into Haiti.
(5)In section
201(b)(1) of the Support for East European Democracy Act of 1989 (Public Law
101–279; 22 U.S.C. 5421), Congress authorized USAID to provide a grant of
$240,000,000 to the Polish-American Enterprise Fund (referred to in this
section as the Polish Fund
), which was organized and
incorporated on April 27, 1990.
(6)The Polish
Fund—
(A)used the USAID
grant to raise $2,300,000,000 in private funds for investment in Poland;
and
(B)used the reflows
from the USAID grant to establish the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, whose
endowment exceeds $250,000,000.
(7)The success of
the Polish Fund in attracting private investment to Poland and in creating a
legacy foundation from its reflows represents a useful model for other
Enterprise Funds.
(8)Enterprise Funds
have enjoyed success in poorer and less developed countries, such as Albania,
where the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund played a pivotal role in helping to
develop the banking sector, privatizing and modernizing the airport, and
expanding access to international trade and investment.
(9)Enterprise Funds
in Albania, the Baltic States, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and other countries
have created and supported programs that have contributed to the growth of an
entrepreneurial middle class.
(10)A professional
and well-managed Haitian-American Enterprise Fund, drawing upon the experience
of members of the Boards of Directors of prior Enterprise Funds, could achieve
similar success.
(11)The programs run
by the Enterprise Funds in other countries, which could also be run in Haiti,
include microloans, carefully designed and monitored mortgage programs, and
small business loans that would create the infrastructure and investment
climate needed to begin to build an entrepreneurial middle class in
Haiti.
3.The purposes of this Act are—
(1)to promote the Haitian private sector,
including small businesses, the agricultural sector, and joint ventures with
United States and Haitian participants; and
(2)to promote policies and practices conducive
to the private sector in Haiti through loans, grants, equity investments,
feasibility studies, technical assistance, training, insurance, guarantees, and
other measures.
4.Haitian-American
Enterprise Fund
(a)The
President is authorized to designate a private, nonprofit organization to
receive funds and support made available under this Act after determining that
such organization has been established for the purposes specified in section 3.
The President should make such designation only after consultation with the
leadership of each House of Congress. The organization designated under this
subsection shall be known as the Haitian-American Enterprise
Fund
.
(b)
(1)The
Haitian-American Enterprise Fund shall be governed by a Board of Directors,
which shall be comprised of 7 private citizens of the United States or Haiti,
appointed by the President, of which not more than 3 may be citizens of Haiti
or United States citizens of Haitian descent.
(2)Member
of the Board of Directors shall be selected from among people who have had
successful business careers in private equity, banking, or finance that is
similar to the experience of individuals who previously served on the Board of
Directors of a successful Enterprise Fund established by the United States
Government on or after January 1, 1990.
(3)Upon the recommendation of the Board of Directors,
the President may appoint up to 2 additional members to the Board (beyond the
number of Directors specified in paragraph (1)), of which not more than 1 may
be a citizen of Haiti or a United States citizen of Haitian descent.
(c)
(1)Amounts appropriated to the President pursuant to section
8 shall be granted to the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund by the United States
Agency for International Development to enable the Fund to carry out the
purposes specified in section 3 and for the administrative expenses of the
Fund.
(2)Eligible
programs and projectsGrants
awarded under this section may only be used for programs and projects that
support the purposes set forth in section 3.
(3)
(A)Grants may not be awarded to the Haitian-American
Enterprise Fund under this section unless the Fund agrees to comply with the
requirements under this section.
(B)The grant agreement between the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID
) and the Haitian-American
Enterprise Fund shall state that the Fund shall liquidate its assets and
dissolve not later than December 31, 2020, unless the USAID Administrator
determines, after consultation with the appropriate congressional committees,
that the Fund should be extended.
(C)All assets of the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund at the
time the Fund is dissolved shall be used by the Board of Directors to organize
and endow a follow-on United States-Haitian legacy foundation.
(d)
(1)Not later than 15 days before designating an organization
to operate as the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund pursuant to subsection (a),
the President shall provide the information described in paragraph (2) to the
Chairman and Ranking Member of the appropriate congressional committees.
(2)The
information described in this paragraph is—
(A)the identity of
the organization to be designated to operate as the Haitian-American Enterprise
Fund pursuant to subsection (a); and
(B)the names and
qualifications of the individuals who will comprise the Initial Board.
(e)In this section, the term appropriate congressional
committees means—
(1)the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate;
(2)the
Committee on Appropriations of the
Senate;
(3)the
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives; and
(4)the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
5.
(a)Subsections
(d)(5), (g), (h), (i), (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), and (p) of section 201 of the
Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989 (Public Law 101–179; 22
U.S.C. 5421) shall apply with respect to the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund
in the same manner as such provisions apply to Enterprise Funds designated
pursuant to subsection (d) of such section.
(b)Returns
on investments of the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund and other payments to
the Fund may be reinvested in projects carried out by the Fund without further
appropriation by Congress.
6.Best practices
and proceduresTo the maximum
extent practicable, the Board of Directors of the Haitian-American Enterprise
Fund should adopt the best practices and procedures used by Enterprise Funds,
including those for which funding has been made available pursuant to section
201 of the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989 (Public Law
101–179; 22 U.S.C. 5421).
7.Experience of
other Enterprise FundsIn
implementing this Act, the President shall ensure that the Articles of
Incorporation of the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund (including provisions
specifying the responsibilities of the Board of Directors of the Fund), the
terms of United States Government grant agreements with the Fund, and United
States Government oversight of the Fund are, to the maximum extent practicable,
consistent with the Articles of Incorporation of, the terms of grant agreements
with, and the oversight of the Enterprise Funds established pursuant to section
201 of the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989 (22 U.S.C.
5421) and comparable provisions of law.
8.Authorization of
appropriations
(a)There are authorized
to be appropriated to the President $100,000,000, which shall be used to
provide funding for grants to the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund, which shall
be used for the purposes specified in section 3.
(b)Amounts appropriated
pursuant to subsection (a) shall remain available until expended.
(c)Nonapplicability
of other lawsAmounts
appropriated pursuant to subsection (a) may be used to carry out this Act
notwithstanding any other provision of law.