[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 656 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 656

 To advance the mutual interests of the United States and Africa with 
respect to the promotion of trade and investment and the advancement of 
   socioeconomic development and opportunity, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 2011

     Mr. Rush (for himself, Mr. Honda, Mr. Conyers, and Mr. Cohen) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To advance the mutual interests of the United States and Africa with 
respect to the promotion of trade and investment and the advancement of 
   socioeconomic development and opportunity, 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 ``African Investment and Diaspora 
Act''.

SEC. 2. DECLARATIONS OF POLICY.

    Congress makes the following declarations of policy:
            (1) It is in the interest of the United States to ensure 
        that bilateral economic ties with Africa are strong, robust, 
        and diverse, in part because African countries possess--
                    (A) great pent-up consumer demand and untapped 
                human and natural resources, and many are now 
                considered ``next frontier'' economies;
                    (B) some of the world's fastest growing economies, 
                with a collective Gross Domestic Product of 
                $1,600,000,000,000 that is projected to double in the 
                next 10 years;
                    (C) combined consumer spending power of almost 
                $900,000,000,000, with $1,400,000,000,000 in projected 
                spending power in the next 10 years;
                    (D) a 60-percent share of the world's total amount 
                of uncultivated, arable land; and
                    (E) a significant percentage of the world's 
                strategic minerals and energy resources.
            (2) Africa represents a potentially profitable destination 
        for United States investors. According to a United Nations 
        Conference on Trade and Development study, return on investment 
        in African companies has averaged nearly 30 percent annually 
        over the past several years. Profitability and rates of growth 
        among many African firms have exceeded global averages, often 
        by large proportions. As a result, 34 private investment funds 
        are now active in Africa in diverse productive sectors. A 
        recent Global Competitiveness Report showed that several of 
        Africa's largest economies receive high grades for innovation 
        and business sophistication.
            (3) Long-term United States economic security interests 
        will be better secured by ensuring United States access to 
        Africa's vast natural and human resources, for which rapidly 
        rising global demand has created increasing competition between 
        industrialized countries and emerging market countries, such as 
        Brazil, Russia, India, China, and others, with respect to their 
        efforts to exert political and economic influence in and 
        increase their economic cooperation and trade with African 
        countries. Such ties are growing apace; for example, the 
        estimated value of Chinese imports from Africa rose by over 693 
        percent between 2000 and 2009, while the value of its exports 
        to the region increased by 926 percent during the same period, 
        in comparison to a rise in United States imports from the 
        region of just under 200 percent and a rise in United States 
        exports to the region of 21 percent during the same period.
            (4) The United States should continue to support efforts to 
        foster socioeconomic development and economic growth in Africa, 
        including by--
                    (A) pursuing efforts to increase collaboration 
                among United States Government departments and agencies 
                in order to more closely integrate and coordinate 
                United States programs and policies aimed at promoting 
                trade and investment with Africa with those intended to 
                advance socioeconomic development and opportunity in 
                Africa;
                    (B) fostering United States private, public-private 
                partnership, and other investments in Africa, as well 
                as other bilateral economic, technical, and social and 
                cultural ties and exchanges, both at the official level 
                and between citizens, private sector businesses, and 
                civil society organizations;
                    (C) supporting and fostering citizen-led efforts to 
                form business, technical, academic, and sociocultural 
                ties with Africans by working to promote the activities 
                of citizen groups that seek to advance such goals among 
                other persons or organizations engaged in socioeconomic 
                development, business, and charitable activities 
                intended to bolster bonds between the United States and 
                Africa; and
                    (D) supporting the efforts of United States persons 
                and groups with interests and ties to Africa to foster 
                and advance such ties and, in particular, the interests 
                and efforts, with respect to such objectives, of 
                members of the African Diaspora in the United States, 
                in recognition, among other reasons, of--
                            (i) the longstanding and deep immigration 
                        ties between Africa and the United States, 
                        including with respect to involuntary and other 
                        migrations of Africans to the Americas in the 
                        19th and earlier centuries, and to more recent 
                        migrations of Africans to the United States;
                            (ii) efforts by the African Union to foster 
                        economic, technical, educational, and social 
                        ties between its member states and the global 
                        African Diaspora;
                            (iii) the status of the African-American 
                        and broader African Diaspora community in the 
                        United States as a large consumer and producer 
                        market and a potentially significant United 
                        States counterpart segment for trade and 
                        investment related to Africa, in particular 
                        with respect to commerce in Afrocentric goods 
                        and services and by small- and medium-sized 
                        enterprises; and
                            (iv) the status of recent African 
                        immigrants as a growing, often economically 
                        well-off professional and educational human 
                        resource and a community with diverse ties to 
                        both American and African societies that is 
                        well placed to foster closer, mutually 
                        beneficial economic, intellectual, and cultural 
                        ties between the United States and African 
                        countries, including with respect to helping to 
                        reverse the so-called ``brain drain'' or 
                        emigration of skilled, educated persons from 
                        Africa, particularly in the science and 
                        technology, education, and health sectors--a 
                        phenomenon that threatens to imperil African 
                        productivity, economic growth, and global 
                        competitiveness necessary to improve 
                        development and human welfare in Africa and 
                        undermine United States interests in having 
                        robust and growing African countries with which 
                        to foster enduring economic and political 
                        partnerships.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are to--
            (1) advance the mutual interests of the United States and 
        Africa with respect to the promotion of trade and investment 
        and the advancement of socioeconomic development and 
        opportunity, and to integrate and create interagency, whole-of-
        government synergies within United States efforts to achieve 
        these goals;
            (2) foster United States trade with and investment in 
        Africa that is more sectorally diverse, of increased economic 
        value, and grounded in free market principles;
            (3) foster United States private, public-private 
        partnership, and other investments in Africa that hold the 
        potential to both generate positive economic effects and result 
        in improvements in public infrastructure, health, education, 
        and economic competitiveness, and efforts to fulfill the 
        Millennium Development Goals in African countries;
            (4) deepen United States-African economic, technical, and 
        social and cultural ties, in particular with respect to those 
        between the peoples of Africa and the members of the African 
        Diaspora in the United States, United States and African civil 
        society groups, and small- and medium-sized business 
        enterprises; and
            (5) facilitate the mutual transfer and exchange of 
        business, technical, and academic expertise between Africa and 
        the United States, in particular by encouraging and 
        facilitating the engagement and involvement of members of the 
        African Diaspora in the United States, among other United 
        States citizens with ties to or interests in Africa, in the 
        achievement of such goals.

SEC. 4. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UNITED STATES-AFRICA TRADE, 
              DEVELOPMENT, AND DIASPORA AFFAIRS, AND RELATED MATTERS.

    (a) Special Representative for United States-Africa Trade, 
Development, and Diaspora Affairs.--Notwithstanding any other provision 
of law, the President shall appoint a Special Representative for United 
States-Africa Trade, Development, and Diaspora Affairs within the 
Department of State (in this Act referred to as the ``Special 
Representative'') not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act. The Special Representative should be a person of 
distinction, culturally sensitive to the underserved African Diaspora 
in the United States, with substantial experience in matters of trade 
or economic development and in matters relating to African Diaspora 
relations with Africa.
    (b) Office of United States-Africa Trade, Development, and Diaspora 
Affairs.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the appointment of 
the Special Representative pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary of 
State shall establish, within the Department of State, the Office of 
United States-Africa Trade, Development, and Diaspora Affairs (in this 
Act referred to as the ``Office''). The Special Representative shall 
serve as the head of the Office, and shall guide and direct the work of 
Office staff.
    (c) Regional Centers.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
        the establishment of the Office pursuant to subsection (b), the 
        Special Representative shall establish 5 regional United 
        States-Africa Trade, Development, and Diaspora Affairs public 
        outreach, education, and liaison centers (in this Act referred 
        to as ``centers''), in a manner to be determined by the 
        Secretary of State and in accordance with the requirements 
        described in paragraph (2).
            (2) Requirements.--The requirements referred to in 
        paragraph (1) are the following:
                    (A) A center shall be established in each of the 
                Northeastern, Southern, Plains and Midwestern, Western, 
                and Northwestern regions of the continental United 
                States in order to serve the population of each such 
                region.
                    (B) Each center shall serve a population that is 
                roughly equal in number to the population served by 
                each of the other centers.
                    (C) Each center shall be located in the city within 
                each region that has the highest number of members of 
                the African Diaspora in the region.
                    (D) The territory for which the Western center has 
                responsibility shall include Hawaii and the territory 
                for which the Northwestern center has responsibility 
                shall include Alaska.
    (d) Duties, Responsibilities, and Functions.--The Special 
Representative and the Office shall promote United States-African trade 
and investment relations and foster socioeconomic development and 
economic growth, by--
            (1) coordinating and convening a permanent interagency 
        United States-Africa Trade and Development Consultative Action 
        Group (in this Act referred to as the ``Group''), which shall 
        include representatives from--
                    (A) the Office of the United States Trade 
                Representative;
                    (B) the Trade and Development Agency;
                    (C) the Overseas Private Investment Corporation;
                    (D) the Export-Import Bank of the United States;
                    (E) the United States Agency for International 
                Development;
                    (F) the Millennium Challenge Corporation;
                    (G) the Department of Agriculture;
                    (H) the Department of Commerce;
                    (I) the Department of Energy;
                    (J) the Small Business Administration;
                    (K) the Department of Defense;
                    (L) other Federal departments and agencies, to be 
                determined by the Special Representative, in 
                consultation with members of the Group described in 
                subparagraphs (A) through (K), on a temporary, 
                permanent, or project-limited basis, based on the 
                technical, programmatic, fiscal, legal, or other needs 
                or objectives of the Group and its activities; and
                    (M) within the context of applied projects 
                undertaken by Group ad hoc project committees, as 
                described in subsection (e), State and local 
                governments, nongovernmental organizations, public-
                private partnership entities, private businesses, and 
                private foundations;
            (2) designing and implementing public outreach, education, 
        and liaison programs and activities intended to foster United 
        States-African economic, technical, social, and cultural ties, 
        in particular with respect to--
                    (A) building and enhancing relationships between 
                the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora, United 
                States and African civil society groups, and small- and 
                medium-sized business enterprises in the United States 
                and Africa; and
                    (B) increasing the participation of members of the 
                African Diaspora and other minority groups in the 
                United States in United States trade, investment, and 
                development assistance programs relating to Africa;
            (3) facilitating and increasing the number of international 
        learning exchange, professional, training, and educational 
        programs between Africa and the United States, in particular 
        programs intended to promote trade, economic growth, or 
        socioeconomic development, including through coordination with 
        the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Special 
        Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs of the 
        Department of State;
            (4) establishing a publicly accessible database and 
        information exchange mechanism through which United States and 
        African business, technical, and academic experts, 
        associations, and other institutions and organizations can 
        establish and expand professional ties, network, and undertake 
        mutual exchanges of knowledge and expertise related to business 
        and economic development and, in particular, provide means for 
        members of the African Diaspora in the United States to 
        transfer information, skills, and expertise to their 
        counterparts in Africa or to help build the technical and 
        professional capacities of African economic and development 
        institutions; and
            (5) liaising and consulting with African governments, the 
        African Union, African intergovernmental subregional 
        organizations, public-private partnership entities, private 
        businesses, nongovernmental organizations, private foundations, 
        and United Nations agencies with respect to matters of Africa-
        related trade, economic development, and African-African 
        Diaspora relations, in order to determine--
                    (A) African trade and economic development 
                priorities;
                    (B) the nature and scope of investments being made 
                by African governments, private sector actors, and 
                other international donors; and
                    (C) strategies for effectively channeling and 
                leveraging United States trade promotion, capacity-
                building, and development resources and coordinating 
                such resources with investments from other sources.
    (e) Other Matters Relating to Duties, Responsibilities, and 
Functions.--
            (1) Of the group.--
                    (A) In general.--Notwithstanding their individual 
                agency mandates and activities, members of the Group 
                shall design and propose integrated, whole-of-
                government approaches for achieving United States 
                Government trade and development policy and program 
                objectives as they relate to Africa, and agency members 
                of the Group shall collaboratively design and implement 
                specific applied projects and programs to achieve these 
                objectives in practice, on an interagency basis, 
                wherever fiscally, technically, programmatically, or 
                legally advantageous, feasible, and permissible.
                    (B) Ad hoc project-related group committees.--The 
                Special Representative may coordinate and convene, as 
                necessary, ad hoc project-related Group committees, 
                made up of 2 or more members of the Group, to define 
                and guide the execution of interagency projects 
                undertaken by members of an ad hoc project-related 
                Group committee.
                    (C) Meetings.--The Group shall meet in plenary on a 
                quarterly basis, at a minimum, or more frequently, as 
                necessary, and at the ad hoc project-related Group 
                committee level, as frequently as necessary.
                    (D) Reports.--Members of the Group shall regularly 
                provide the Special Representative detailed 
                information, data, reports, and other material 
                pertaining to current or prospective projects related 
                to their agency or department trade and development 
                initiatives in Africa, and the Office shall make these 
                reports available to all members of the Group and to 
                Congress in a centrally, Internet-accessible digital 
                database repository.
            (2) Of the office.--The Office shall review the 
        information, data, reports, and other material submitted by 
        members of the Group, and shall propose to members of the 
        Group, where fiscally, technically, programmatically, or 
        legally advantageous, feasible, and permissible, ways of 
        integrating, linking, or leveraging Group member agency 
        investments and projects that incorporate shared or similar 
        objectives and, in particular, projects that simultaneously 
        foster trade or economic growth, and socioeconomic development.
            (3) Of the special representative.--The Special 
        Representative may request and shall receive in a timely manner 
        any documents or data, whether in an electronic, paper, or 
        other format, from any member of the Group pertaining to any 
        Africa-related trade or development-related project with which 
        the member is involved or is funding or facilitating, with the 
        exception of contractually or proprietorialy protected 
        documents.
            (4) Of regional centers.--The activities of regional 
        centers shall support all duties, responsibilities, and 
        functions of the Special Representative and of the Office, but 
        shall principally focus on the objectives set out in paragraphs 
        (2), (3), and (4) of subsection (d).
    (f) Staff.--
            (1) In general.--The Special Representative shall, from 
        among individuals described in paragraph (2), hire staff as 
        appropriate to carry out this section.
            (2) Qualifications.--Individuals described in this 
        paragraph are individuals who--
                    (A) are United States citizens;
                    (B) have a strong knowledge of Africa;
                    (C) have a strong knowledge of United States-
                African relations; and
                    (D) are fluent in English and are proficient or 
                fluent in one of the national nonindigenous official 
                languages spoken in Africa, including Spanish, French, 
                or Portuguese, or one or more indigenous official 
                languages.

SEC. 5. REPORT.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act and annually thereafter for 4 years, the 
President shall submit to Congress a report on the implementation of 
this Act.
    (b) Matters To Be Included.--The report required under subsection 
(a) shall--
            (1) describe the impact of this Act on trade, investment, 
        and job creation in the United States and Africa and the impact 
        of the role of the African Diaspora in the United States in 
        improving United States-Africa trade relations and economic 
        development progress in Africa; and
            (2) include recommendations regarding possible changes to 
        the duties, responsibilities, and functions of the Special 
        Representative, the Office, and the Group, and other related 
        recommendations as they pertain to strategies for effectively 
        implementing whole-of-government and interagency approaches to 
        achieving United States Government trade and development policy 
        and program objectives as they relate to Africa.

SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
     (a) African Diaspora.--The term ``African Diaspora'' means the 
peoples of African descent living outside Africa, irrespective of their 
citizenship and nationality, who are willing to contribute to the 
development of Africa.
    (b) Africa.--The term ``Africa'' refers to the entire continent of 
Africa, including the countries of Comoros, Madagascar, and Seychelles.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDING.

    From amounts appropriated or otherwise made available for 
``Diplomatic and Consular Programs'' for fiscal years 2012 through 
2016, $5,000,000 for each such fiscal year is authorized to be made to 
carry out this Act.
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