[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3159 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3159

To direct the President, in consultation with the Department of State, 
    United States Agency for International Development, Millennium 
  Challenge Corporation, and the Department of Defense, to establish 
guidelines for United States foreign assistance programs, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 12, 2011

Mr. Poe of Texas (for himself, Mr. Berman, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. 
Crenshaw, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mrs. Ellmers, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Moran, 
   Mr. Carnahan, Mr. Sires, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Griffin of Arkansas, Mr. 
Chabot, Mr. Bilirakis, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Westmoreland, Mr. Connolly of 
   Virginia, Mr. McCaul, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. McDermott, Mr. 
   Bonner, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Cicilline, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Coffman of 
   Colorado, Mr. Welch, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Murphy of Connecticut, Mrs. 
  Schmidt, Mr. Ellison, and Mr. Kelly) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the President, in consultation with the Department of State, 
    United States Agency for International Development, Millennium 
  Challenge Corporation, and the Department of Defense, to establish 
guidelines for United States foreign assistance programs, 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 ``Foreign Aid Transparency and 
Accountability Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.

    (a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to evaluate the 
performance of United States foreign assistance programs and their 
contribution to policy, strategies, projects, program goals, and 
priorities undertaken by the Federal Government, to foster and promote 
innovative programs to improve the effectiveness of such programs, and 
to coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes of Federal 
departments and agencies that administer such programs.
    (b) Establishment of Guidelines.--The President, in consultation 
with the Department of State, United States Agency for International 
Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Department of 
Defense, shall establish guidelines regarding the establishment of 
measurable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and evaluation 
plans that can be applied on a uniform basis to United States foreign 
assistance programs, country assistance plans, and international and 
multilateral assistance programs receiving financial assistance from 
the United States. Such guidelines shall be established according to 
best practices of monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses.
    (c) Objectives of Guidelines.--
            (1) In general.--Such guidelines shall provide direction to 
        Federal departments and agencies that administer United States 
        foreign assistance programs on how to develop the complete 
        range of activities relating to the monitoring of resources, 
        the evaluation of projects, the evaluation of program impacts, 
        and analysis that is necessary for the identification of 
        findings, generalizations that can be derived from those 
        findings, and their applicability to proposed project and 
        program design.
            (2) Objectives.--Specifically, the guidelines shall provide 
        direction on how to achieve the following objectives for 
        monitoring and evaluation programs:
                    (A) Building measurable goals, performance metrics 
                and monitoring and evaluation into program design at 
                the outset, including the provision of sufficient 
                program resources to conduct monitoring and evaluation.
                    (B) Disseminating guidelines for the development 
                and implementation of monitoring and evaluation 
                programs to all personnel, especially in the field, who 
                are responsible for the design, implementation and 
                management of foreign assistance programs.
                    (C) Developing a clearinghouse capacity for the 
                dissemination of knowledge and lessons learned to 
                United States development professionals, implementing 
                partners, the international aid community, and aid 
                recipient governments, and as a repository of knowledge 
                on lessons learned.
                    (D) Distributing evaluation reports internally and 
                making this material available online to the public. 
                Furthermore, providing a summary including a 
                description of methods, key findings and 
                recommendations to the public on-line in a fully 
                searchable form within 90 days after the completion of 
                the evaluation. Principled exceptions will be made in 
                cases of classified or proprietary material.
                    (E) Establishing annual monitoring and evaluation 
                agendas and objectives that are responsive to policy 
                and programmatic priorities.
                    (F) Applying rigorous monitoring and evaluation 
                methodologies, choosing from among a wide variety of 
                qualitative and quantitative methods common in the 
                field of social scientific inquiry.
                    (G) Partnering with the academic community, 
                implementing partners, and national and international 
                institutions that have expertise in monitoring and 
                evaluation and analysis when such partnerships will 
                provide needed expertise or will significantly improve 
                the evaluation and analysis.
                    (H) Developing and implementing a training plan for 
                aid personnel on the proper conduct of monitoring and 
                evaluation programs.
    (d) Role of Other Federal Departments and Agencies.--The President 
shall carry out this section in conjunction with the heads of Federal 
departments and agencies that administer United States foreign 
assistance programs.
    (e) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to Congress a report 
that contains a detailed description of the guidelines that have been 
developed on measurable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and 
evaluation plans for United States foreign assistance programs 
established under this section.
    (f) Evaluation Defined.--In this section, the term ``evaluation'' 
means, with respect to a United States foreign assistance program, the 
systematic collection and analysis of information about the 
characteristics and outcomes of the program and projects under the 
program as a basis for judgments, to improve effectiveness, and to 
inform decisions about current and future programming.

SEC. 3. INTERNET WEB SITE TO MAKE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE COMPREHENSIVE, 
              TIMELY, COMPARABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION ON UNITED 
              STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.

    (a) Establishment; Publication and Updates.--Not later than 2 years 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall 
establish and maintain an Internet Web site to make publicly available 
comprehensive, timely, comparable, and accessible information on United 
States foreign assistance programs. The head of each Federal department 
or agency that administers such programs shall on a regular basis 
publish and update on the Web site such information with respect to the 
programs of the department or agency.
    (b) Matters To Be Included.--
            (1) In general.--Such information shall be published on a 
        detailed program-by-program basis and country-by-country basis.
            (2) Types of information.--To ensure transparency, 
        accountability, and effectiveness of United States foreign 
        assistance programs, the information shall include country 
        assistance strategies, annual budget documents, congressional 
        budget justifications, actual expenditures, and reports and 
        evaluations for such programs and projects under such programs. 
        Each type of information described in this paragraph shall be 
        published on the Web site not later than 30 days after the date 
        of issuance of the information and shall be continuously 
        updated.
            (3) Report in lieu of inclusion.--If the head of a Federal 
        department or agency makes a determination that the inclusion 
        of a required item of information on the Web site would 
        jeopardize the health or security of an implementing partner or 
        program beneficiary or would be detrimental to the national 
        interests of the United States, such item of information may be 
        submitted to Congress in a written report in lieu of including 
        it on the Web site, along with the reasons for not including it 
        in the database required under subsection (c)(2).
    (c) Scope of Information.--
            (1) In general.--The Web site shall contain such 
        information relating to the current fiscal year and the 
        immediately preceding 5 fiscal years.
            (2) Database.--
                    (A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (B), the 
                Web site shall also contain a link to a searchable 
                database available to the public containing such 
                information relating to fiscal years prior to the 
                current fiscal year and the immediately preceding 5 
                fiscal years.
                    (B) Limitation.--The database shall not contain 
                such information relating to fiscal years prior to 
                fiscal year 2006.
    (d) Form.--Such information shall be published on the Web site in 
unclassified form. Any information determined to be classified 
information may be submitted to Congress in classified form and an 
unclassified summary of such information shall be published on the Web 
site.
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