[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7710 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7710

 To authorize and encourage the United States Agency for International 
     Development to pursue a model of locally led development and 
  humanitarian response and expand engagement with local partners and 
                    increase its local partner base.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2024

 Ms. Jacobs (for herself and Mr. Mills) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize and encourage the United States Agency for International 
     Development to pursue a model of locally led development and 
  humanitarian response and expand engagement with local partners and 
                    increase its local partner base.

    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 ``Locally Led Development and 
Humanitarian Response Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to encourage the United States Agency 
for International Development to pursue a model of locally led 
development and humanitarian response and expand engagement and 
partnership with local entities.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) locally led development and humanitarian response is 
        linked to more efficient and sustainable development and 
        humanitarian outcomes, and is vital to building long-term self-
        reliance;
            (2) over multiple Administrations, USAID has sought to 
        achieve greater development outcomes through stronger local 
        partnerships, including through ``Country Ownership'', ``The 
        Journey to Self-Reliance'', and ``Locally Led Development'';
            (3) USAID should increase direct funding to local entities, 
        including by increasing the amount of development and 
        humanitarian assistance to such entities;
            (4) USAID should ensure its programming enables local 
        communities to exercise leadership over priorities, project 
        design, implementation, and measuring and evaluating results of 
        such programs;
            (5) working with local partners often requires more time 
        and resources than traditional partners, including extended 
        availability of funds and additional staff resources; and
            (6) increased flexibility is critical to enable USAID to 
        respond to local priorities and leverage local capacities, 
        including with respect to staffing, availability of funds, 
        program design, and acquisition and assistance processes, among 
        other areas.

SEC. 4. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS.

    (a) In General.--To the extent feasible and appropriate, the 
Administrator of USAID should localize USAID's partner base by 
considering--
            (1) simplifying and increasing access to USAID resources 
        for local partners in humanitarian and development sectors, 
        including local partners who have relations, agency, or power 
        structures in place that have produced, or can produce, strong 
        trust, accountability, and legitimacy in the communities or 
        networks such partners work in;
            (2) diversifying award types to streamline performance 
        requirements and working with the Office of Management and 
        Budget to address threshold constraints such as fixed amount 
        subaward thresholds, category management award targets, and 
        other thresholds, policies, and contracting incentives that 
        pose a barrier to effectively supporting local partners;
            (3) streamlining monitoring and evaluation, periodic 
        reporting, and other USAID reporting requirements;
            (4) ensuring USAID staff is able and encouraged to conduct 
        regular consultation with local partners in local languages of 
        the host countries, making available solicitations for 
        acquisitions and assistance and accepting submissions in local 
        languages, video format, or verbal presentations, including 
        by--
                    (A) investing in translation services;
                    (B) hosting workshop-based engagements; and
                    (C) advertising solicitations in local trade 
                publications, local media including newspapers and 
                radio, local community centers, and local online 
                forums;
            (5) allowing and promoting multi-year, flexible, tiered and 
        milestone-based funding for new programs and to bring 
        successful programs to scale;
            (6) strengthening USAID staff and local partners' capacity 
        to undertake risk management and mitigation;
            (7) supporting consistent and unimpeded access to full cost 
        recovery for local partners implementing USAID-funded 
        activities;
            (8) assessing current definitions of ``local partner'', 
        ``local ownership'', and ``localization'' used by USAID for 
        programming and reporting metrics, and updating the 
        definitions, as necessary;
            (9) undertaking outreach campaigns and engaging with local 
        partners, formally and informally, to raise awareness about 
        opportunities, as well as how to apply for and manage awards in 
        compliance with applicable Federal regulations and USAID 
        policies, and ensuring such engagement is accessible to all 
        entities, including unregistered and informal organizations;
            (10) strengthening oversight of capacity strengthening 
        components of awards to ensure United States and international 
        awardees are making good-faith efforts to strengthen local 
        organizations' capacities, including independent and external 
        evaluations to evaluate the mentorship process and regular 
        feedback loops;
            (11) expeditiously solving the shortage of contracting 
        officers within USAID, including granting warrants to qualified 
        staff and providing appropriate training;
            (12) addressing performance evaluation criteria to create 
        greater workforce incentives for USAID personnel to champion 
        locally led development;
            (13) addressing internal delays and recipient organization 
        issues that result in the required extension of provisional 
        Negotiated Indirect Cost Rates (NICRAs);
            (14) conducting NICRA seminars in local languages and 
        providing NICRA documentation in local languages; and
            (15) ensuring that contracting officers and agreement 
        officers communicate to awardees who do not submit for a NICRA 
        that they are eligible for the de minimis indirect cost rate.

SEC. 5. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ACTIONS DESCRIBED IN SECTION 4.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Administrator of USAID shall initiate policy actions, 
including rulemaking if necessary, to institutionalize the actions 
described in section 4 to the extent appropriate and feasible within 
all relevant USAID internal rules and regulations, including the 
Automated Directive System (ADS), the Acquisition and Assistance 
Strategy, the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, the Localization of 
Humanitarian Assistance Strategy, the USAID Acquisition Regulation 
(AIDAR), the Local Systems Framework, and the Private Sector Engagement 
Policy.

SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS, PROPOSALS, AND CONTRACTING 
              AGREEMENTS IN LOCAL LANGUAGES AND LOCAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, USAID 
is authorized to accept applications or proposals in languages other 
than English if such acceptance eases the burden of a local entity 
working with USAID and USAID is able to effectively evaluate such 
applications or proposals.
    (b) Local Language Support.--
            (1) In general.--The Administrator of USAID shall conduct 
        an assessment of options to enable USAID to utilize local 
        languages to support local partners with award solicitations, 
        proposals and applications, evaluations, management, and close 
        out, including advising local partners on applicable United 
        States regulations and USAID policies and local country rules 
        and regulations common in such activities.
            (2) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
        enactment of this Act, the Administrator of USAID shall submit 
        to Congress a report on the assessment described in this 
        subsection.

SEC. 7. MODIFICATIONS RELATING TO THE CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS AND 
              OTHER REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Increase in the De Minimis Indirect Cost.--The Administrator of 
USAID is authorized to increase the de minimis indirect cost rate 
provided for in section 200.414 of title 2, Code of Federal 
Regulations, or any successor regulations, to 15 percent for local 
entities receiving USAID assistance awards and to establish a similar 
de minimis indirect cost rate of 15 percent for acquisitions awarded 
under title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations to local entities, 
and to increase this threshold further should subsequent Office of 
Management and Budget regulations recommend doing so.
    (b) Exemption for Local Entities.--The Administrator of USAID is 
authorized to exempt local entities, as needed, from the reporting 
requirements of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 
of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6106 note; Public Law 109-282) to allow for a 180-
day delay in obtaining a unique entity identifier and registration in 
the System for Award Management. This delay shall be no later than 30 
days prior to the end of the award's period of performance.
    (c) Local Competition Authority.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the Administrator of USAID (or the Administrator's 
designees) may award contracts and other acquisition instruments in 
which competition is limited to local entities if doing so would result 
in cost savings, strengthen local capacity, or enable USAID to deliver 
a programs or activities more sustainably or quickly than if 
competition were not so limited. Such authority may not be used to make 
acquisition awards in excess of $25,000,000 and shall not exceed more 
than 10 percent of the amounts appropriated to USAID each fiscal year.
    (d) Use of National or International Generally Accepted Accounting 
Principles.--The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with the 
Administrator of the General Services Administration, the Secretary of 
Defense, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration, is authorized to allow foreign entities to use national 
or international generally accepted accounting principles instead of 
United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for 
contracts or grants awarded under the chapter 7 of title 48, Code of 
Federal Regulations or chapter 7 of title 2, Code of Federal 
Regulations.

SEC. 8. ANNUAL REPORT.

    Not later than 180 days after the end of each fiscal year following 
the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 
Administrator of USAID shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees and publish on USAID's website a report on USAID's progress 
to advance locally led development and humanitarian response, to 
include the following elements:
            (1) The amount of funding implemented directly and 
        indirectly by local entities in the previous fiscal year, 
        including all development and humanitarian assistance programs.
            (2) An assessment of how USAID is enabling more local 
        leadership of USAID-funded programs, including recipients of 
        direct funding, subrecipients and subcontractors to an 
        international implementing partner, participants in a USAID 
        program, or members of a community affected by USAID 
        programming.
            (3) An assessment of progress implementing the Acquisitions 
        and Assistance Strategy, including updated information on the 
        ratio of the USAID Acquisitions and Assistance workforce to 
        award dollars managed with comparison to other relevant 
        agencies; the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy; the Policy 
        on Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance; and any other relevant 
        strategies and policies.
            (4) An assessment of how USAID is using new authorities 
        granted in sections 6 and 7 and an assessment of the impact of 
        these authorities on USAID's ability to work with local 
        partners.
            (5) An assessment of how many organizations with a 
        Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (NICRA) cognizant to USAID are 
        utilizing provisional NICRAs for over 48 months without a final 
        NICRA and steps that USAID can take to reduce the extension of 
        provisional NICRAs beyond 12 months.

SEC. 9. REPORT ON CONTRACTING OFFICERS.

    Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act, the 
Administrator of USAID shall provide a report to the appropriate 
congressional committees on the recruitment and retention of 
contracting officers and agreement officers at USAID and 
recommendations to improve contracting/agreement officer recruitment 
and retention.

SEC. 10. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
                Representatives; and
                    (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.
            (2) USAID.--The term ``USAID'' means the United States 
        Agency for International Development.
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