[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3766 Placed on Calendar Senate (PCS)]
<DOC>
Calendar No. 318
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3766
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 9, 2015
Received; read twice and placed on the calendar
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To direct the President to establish guidelines for United States
foreign development and economic 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 2015''.
SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to evaluate the
performance of United States foreign development and economic
assistance and its contribution to the policies, strategies, projects,
program goals, and priorities undertaken by the Federal Government, to
foster and promote innovative programs to improve effectiveness, and to
coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes of Federal
departments and agencies that administer United States foreign
development and economic assistance.
(b) Establishment of Guidelines.--Not later than 18 months after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall set forth
guidelines for the establishment of measurable goals, performance
metrics, and monitoring and evaluation plans that can be applied with
reasonable consistency to United States foreign development and
economic assistance. Such guidelines shall be established according to
best practices of monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses.
(c) Objectives of Guidelines.--
(1) In general.--The guidelines established under
subsection (b) shall provide direction to Federal departments
and agencies that administer United States foreign development
and economic assistance on monitoring the use of resources,
evaluating the outcomes and impacts of United States foreign
development and economic assistance projects and programs, and
applying the findings and conclusions of such evaluations to
proposed project and program design.
(2) Objectives.--Specifically, the guidelines established
under subsection (b) shall require Federal departments and
agencies that administer United States foreign development and
economic assistance to take the following actions:
(A) Establish annual monitoring and evaluation
agendas and objectives to plan and manage the process
of monitoring, evaluating, analyzing progress, and
applying learning toward achieving results.
(B) Develop specific project monitoring and
evaluation plans, to include measurable goals and
performance metrics, and identify the resources
necessary to conduct such evaluations, which should be
covered by program costs, during project design.
(C) Apply rigorous monitoring and evaluation
methodologies to such programs, including through the
use of impact evaluations, ex-post evaluations, or
other methods as appropriate, that clearly define
program logic, inputs, outputs, intermediate outcomes,
and end outcomes.
(D) Disseminate 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 United States foreign development and
economic assistance programs.
(E) Establish methodologies for the collection of
data, including baseline data to serve as a reference
point against which progress can be measured.
(F) Evaluate at least once in their lifetime all
programs whose dollar value equals or exceeds the
median program size for the relevant office or bureau
or an equivalent calculation to ensure the majority of
program resources are evaluated.
(G) Conduct impact evaluations on all pilot
programs before replicating wherever possible, or
provide a written justification for not conducting an
impact evaluation where such an evaluation was deemed
inappropriate or impossible.
(H) Develop a clearinghouse capacity for the
collection and dissemination of knowledge and lessons
learned that serve as benchmarks to guide future
programs for United States development professionals,
implementing partners, the donor community, and aid
recipient governments, and as a repository of knowledge
on lessons learned.
(I) Distribute evaluation reports internally.
(J) Publicly report each evaluation, including an
executive summary, a description of the evaluation
methodology, key findings, appropriate context
(including quantitative and qualitative data when
available), and recommendations made in the evaluation
within 90 days after the completion of the evaluation.
(K) Undertake collaborative partnerships and
coordinate efforts with the academic community,
implementing partners, and national and international
institutions that have expertise in program monitoring,
evaluation, and analysis when such partnerships provide
needed expertise or significantly improve the
evaluation and analysis.
(L) Ensure verifiable, valid, credible, precise,
reliable, and timely data are available to monitoring
and evaluation personnel to permit the objective
evaluation of the effectiveness of United States
foreign development and economic assistance programs,
including an assessment of assumptions and limitations
in such evaluations.
(M) Ensure that standards of professional
evaluation organizations for monitoring and evaluation
efforts are employed, including ensuring the integrity
and independence of evaluations, permitting and
encouraging the exercise of professional judgment, and
providing for quality control and assurance in the
monitoring and evaluation process.
(d) Presidential Report.--Not later than 18 months after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report that contains a detailed
description of the guidelines established under subsection (b). The
report shall be submitted in unclassified form, but it may contain a
classified annex.
(e) Comptroller General Report.--The Comptroller General of the
United States shall, not later than 1 year after the report required by
subsection (d) is submitted to Congress, submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report that analyzes--
(1) the guidelines established pursuant to subsection (b);
and
(2) a side-by-side comparison of the President's budget
request for that fiscal year of every operational unit that
carries out United States foreign development and economic
assistance and the performance of such units during the prior
fiscal year.
SEC. 3. INFORMATION ON UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Publication of Information.--
(1) Update of existing web site.--Not later than 90 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
State shall update the Department of State's Internet Web site,
``ForeignAssistance.gov'', to make publicly available
comprehensive, timely, and comparable information on United
States foreign development and economic assistance programs,
including all information required pursuant to subsection (b)
of this section that is then available to the Secretary of
State.
(2) Information sharing.--The head of each Federal
department or agency that administers United States foreign
development and economic assistance shall, not later than 2
years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and on a
quarterly basis thereafter, provide to the Secretary of State
comprehensive information about the United States foreign
development and economic assistance programs carried out by
such department or agency.
(3) Updates to web site.--Not later than 2 years after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall
publish, through the ``ForeignAssistance.gov'' Web site or a
successor online publication, the information provided under
subsection (b) of this section and shall update such
information on a quarterly basis.
(b) Matters To Be Included.--
(1) In general.--The information described in subsection
(a) shall be published on a detailed award-by-award and
country-by-country basis unless assistance is provided on a
regional level, in which case the information shall be
published on an award-by-award and region-by-region basis.
(2) Types of information.--
(A) In general.--To ensure transparency,
accountability, and effectiveness of United States
foreign development and economic assistance programs,
the information described in subsection (a) shall
include--
(i) links to all regional, country, and
sector assistance strategies, annual budget
documents, congressional budget justifications,
evaluations and summaries of evaluations as
required under section 2(c)(2)(J);
(ii) basic descriptive summaries for United
States foreign development and economic
assistance programs and awards under such
programs; and
(iii) obligations and expenditures under
such programs.
Each type of information described in this paragraph
shall be published or updated on the Internet Web site
not later than 90 days after the date of issuance of
the information.
(B) Rule of construction.--Nothing in subparagraph
(A) shall be construed to require a Federal department
or agency that administers United States foreign
development and economic assistance to provide any
information that does not relate to or is not otherwise
required by the United States foreign development and
economic assistance programs carried out by such
department or agency.
(3) Report in lieu of inclusion.--
(A) Health or security of implementing partners.--
If the head of a Federal department or agency, in
consultation with the Secretary of State, makes a
determination that the inclusion of a required item of
information online would jeopardize the health or
security of an implementing partner or program
beneficiary or would require the release of proprietary
information of an implementing partner or program
beneficiary, the head of the Federal department or
agency shall provide such determination in writing to
the appropriate congressional committees, including the
basis for such determination and shall--
(i) provide a briefing to the appropriate
congressional committees on such information;
or
(ii) submit to the appropriate
congressional committees such information in a
written report.
(B) National interests of the united states.--If
the Secretary of State makes a determination that the
inclusion of a required item of information online
would be detrimental to the national interests of the
United States, the Secretary of State shall provide
such determination in writing to the appropriate
congressional committees, including the basis for such
determination and shall--
(i) provide a briefing to the appropriate
congressional committees on such information;
or
(ii) submit to the appropriate
congressional committees the item of
information in a written report.
(C) Form.--Any briefing or item of information
provided under this paragraph may be provided in
classified form, as appropriate.
(4) Failure to comply.--If a Federal department or agency
fails to comply with the requirements of subsection (a),
paragraph (1) or (2) of this subsection, or subsection (c) with
respect to providing information described in subsection (a),
and the information is not subject to a determination under
subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (3) of this subsection not
to make the information publically available, the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the
head of such department or agency, shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees not later than September
1, 2016, a consolidated report describing, with respect to each
required item of information not made publicly available--
(A) a detailed explanation of the reason for not
making such information publicly available; and
(B) the department's or agency's plan and timeline
for immediately making such information publicly
available, and for ensuring that information is made
publically available in following years.
(c) Scope of Information.--The online publication required by
subsection (a) shall, at a minimum, provide the information required by
subsection (b)--
(1) in each fiscal year from 2016 through 2019, such
information for fiscal years 2012 through the current fiscal
year; and
(2) for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year thereafter,
such information for the immediately preceding 5 fiscal years
in a fully searchable form.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
(2) Evaluation.--The term ``evaluation'' means, with
respect to a United States foreign development and economic
assistance program, the systematic collection and analysis of
information about the characteristics and outcomes of the
program, including projects conducted under such program, as a
basis for making judgments and evaluations regarding the
program, to improve program effectiveness, and to inform
decisions about current and future programming.
(3) United states foreign development and economic
assistance.--The term ``United States foreign development and
economic assistance'' means assistance provided primarily for
the purposes of foreign development and economic support,
including assistance authorized under--
(A) part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
(22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), other than--
(i) title IV of chapter 2 of such part
(relating to the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation);
(ii) chapter 3 of such part (relating to
International Organizations and Programs); and
(iii) chapter 8 of such part (relating to
International Narcotics Control);
(B) chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq.; relating to
Economic Support Fund);
(C) the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C.
7701 et seq.); and
(D) the Food for Peace Act (7 U.S.C. 1721 et seq.).
Passed the House of Representatives December 8, 2015.
Attest:
KAREN L. HAAS,
Clerk.
Calendar No. 318
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3766
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To direct the President to establish guidelines for United States
foreign development and economic assistance programs, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
December 9, 2015
Received; read twice and placed on the calendar