[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4455 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4455
To provide for reform of the Department of State with respect to
security assistance.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 16, 2025
Ms. Jacobs (for herself and Mr. Moylan) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition
to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for reform of the Department of State with respect to
security assistance.
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 ``United States Security Assistance
Effectiveness Act''.
SECTION 2. ORGANIZATIONAL REFORM.
(a) Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.--
The duties of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International
Security relating to security assistance shall include--
(1) within the Department and across United States
diplomatic posts--
(A) providing strategic policy guidance on
objectives, metrics, and priorities for security
assistance; and
(B) ensuring strategic integration of budgets and
planning for security assistance; and
(2) overseeing Department coordination with the Secretary
of Defense and the heads of other relevant Federal departments
and agencies on all matters relating to security assistance,
including by leading or delegating Secretary concurrence for
all security assistance and security cooperation authorities
under title 10, United States Code.
(b) Office of Security Assistance.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary shall designate an existing
office or establish a new office to be the Office of Security
Assistance, which--
(A) shall be located in the Office of the Under
Secretary for Arms Control and International Security;
and
(B) shall report to Office of the Under Secretary
for Arms Control and International Security.
(2) Coordinator.--The head of the Office shall be the
Coordinator for Security Assistance, who shall be an individual
who is a member of the Senior Executive Service and of
demonstrated competency in the fields of security assistance
and international diplomacy.
(3) Duties.--The duties of the Coordinator shall include
within the Department and across United States diplomatic
posts--
(A) guiding and supporting security assistance;
(B) maintaining the common database described in
section 5;
(C) coordinating the assessment, monitoring, and
evaluation program established under section 6; and
(D) establishing the framework described in section
7.
(c) Coordination Within the Department.--
(1) Designation.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, and subject to paragraph (2), the
head of each bureau of the Department that is involved in
directing or implementing security assistance shall designate
an officer of such bureau to be responsible for coordinating
the responsibilities of such bureau with respect to security
assistance.
(2) Non-eligibility.--An officer of a bureau of the
Department shall not be eligible to be designated pursuant to
paragraph (1) if the officer is responsible for conducting
human rights vetting pursuant to 620M of the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d).
(3) Training.--Each individual designated pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall successfully complete the training
described in section 3.
(d) Coordination Within United States Diplomatic Posts.--
(1) Designation.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the chief of mission of the United
States in a foreign country that receives security assistance
shall designate a senior diplomatic officer at the embassy or
highest ranking diplomatic post if no embassy exists in the
foreign country to be responsible for coordinating security
assistance for the foreign country.
(2) Duties.--The senior diplomatic officer designated
pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be responsible for--
(A) overseeing personnel and activities of Federal
departments and agencies at the relevant embassy or
diplomatic post with respect to the provision of
security assistance for the country; and
(B) ensuring implementation of section 620M of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d),
section 362 of title 10, United States Code, and other
relevant authorities relating to the end-use of United
States-transferred defense articles with respect to the
country.
(3) Training.--Each individual designated pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall successfully complete the training
described in section 3.
(e) Plan for Coordination.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a plan for the
implementation of this section, including on the coordination
within and outside of the Department relating to security
assistance programs.
(2) Matters to be included.--The plan required under
paragraph (1) shall include the following:
(A) A plan for how the Department will effectively
coordinate internally, with diplomatic posts, and with
the Department of Defense with respect to security
assistance programs.
(B) A description of the process by which the
requirement for training described in section 3 will be
fulfilled.
(C) The benefits, feasibility, and steps necessary
to detail personnel--
(i) on a reimbursable basis from the
relevant bureaus and offices of the Department
to provide staff to the Office; and
(ii) from the Department of Defense and
other relevant Federal departments and agencies
to provide staff to the Office.
(D) A list of recommendations for any additional
legislative measures necessary to improve the capacity
and capabilities of the Department to plan and
implement security assistance programs and activities.
(3) Form.--The plan required under paragraph (1) shall be
submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified
annex if necessary.
(4) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this
subsection, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate.
SEC. 3. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish curriculum at the
Department's Foreign Service Institute to provide employees of the
Department with specialized training with respect to security
assistance.
(b) Matters To Be Included.--The training required by subsection
(a) should be aligned with the Security Cooperation Workforce
Development Program and developed in coordination with the Defense
Security Cooperation Agency, including through an agreement under
section 1535(a) of title 31, United States Code (commonly referred to
as the ``Economy Act''), or any other appropriate agency-specific
authority. The training shall include the following:
(1) Awareness of the full range of agencies, offices,
personnel, statutory authorities, funds, and programs involved
in security assistance and transfers and the respective
decision-making timelines.
(2) Familiarity with relevant military and police security
force systems and structures and institutions at the time such
training is occurring.
(3) Familiarity with security assistance reform, research
regarding options for improvement, and United States
interagency and external resources and experts.
(4) Familiarity with planning, implementation, and
monitoring and evaluation for programmatic activities.
(5) Familiarity with the requirements to coordinate and
consult with the Department of Defense on certain security
cooperation programs, to include any programs that require
Secretary concurrence or joint formulation.
(6) Familiarity with implementation of--
(A) section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d) and section 362 of title 10,
United States Code;
(B) arms transfer requirements under the Arms
Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.);
(C) end-use monitoring and other relevant
authorities pertaining to the end-use of United States-
transferred defense articles; and
(D) best practices related to human rights and
civilian protection.
(7) Awareness of common risks to effectiveness of security
assistance, including corruption, political instability, and
challenges relating to absorptive capacity, partner commitment,
and transparency.
SEC. 4. INTERAGENCY COORDINATION OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE, TRANSFERS, AND
SECURITY COOPERATION.
(a) Comptroller General Report.--Not later than 1 year after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the
United States shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees
a report that assesses the effectiveness of existing mechanisms that
require the concurrence and coordination of the Secretary of State with
respect to security assistance and security cooperation programs, and
other applicable provisions of law that provide for coordination
between security assistance programs, projects, and activities of the
Department and security cooperation programs, projects, and activities
of the Department of Defense that includes the following:
(1) An identification of relevant security assistance and
security cooperation programs, authorities, and resources that
require Secretary of State coordination or concurrence, and
their mandated coordination and concurrence mechanisms and
processes between the Secretary and Secretary of Defense,
including the definitions and guidance for such mechanisms and
processes to include--
(A) joint coordination;
(B) Chief of Mission and Secretary concurrence; and
(C) joint formulation.
(2) An assessment of such processes and mechanisms in
practice.
(3) An identification of measures to improve such processes
and mechanisms and the coordination between Department bureaus
and offices involved in planning, executing, or overseeing
security assistance programs and activities and the United
States combatant command or commands relevant to such bureaus
and offices.
(b) Joint Process for Section 333 Projects.--Consistent with
recommendations made by the Comptroller General of the United States
pursuant to the report of the Government Accountability Office
identified as the 23-105842 report, the Secretary, in coordination with
the Secretary of Defense, shall establish a process that specifies how
and when the Department should be involved in the planning of projects
pursuant to section 333 of title 10, United States Code, including
timelines for the Department's review of concurrence packages.
SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMON DATABASE OF SECURITY ASSISTANCE AND
SECURITY COOPERATION PROGRAMS.
(a) In General.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in coordination with the
Secretary of Defense, the Director of the Defense Security Cooperation
Agency, and the heads of other appropriate Federal departments and
agencies, shall maintain a common database of information of all
security assistance and security cooperation programs and activities,
funding, and transfers by recipient country.
(b) Plan.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in coordination with
the Secretary of Defense, Director of the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency and the heads of other appropriate Federal
departments and agencies, shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report that contains a plan to meet
the requirements of subsection (a).
(2) Elements.--The plan required by this subsection shall
include each of the following elements:
(A) A plan to ensure a standardized method of
capturing country-level data of security assistance and
security cooperation programs and activities
administered by the Department and the Department of
Defense since fiscal year 2017, to include--
(i) the identification of authorities and
costs, by fiscal year, of each such program or
activity;
(ii) the primary recipients by unit of each
such program or activity within the relevant
foreign partner government or organization;
(iii) the purpose of each such program or
activity, to include how each program advances
United States regional and country strategies
and objectives and advances mutually beneficial
security goals, including addressing shared
threats;
(iv) narrative descriptions of all capacity
building activities and any lethal assistance,
including the training, equipment, and
sustainment plan associated with each such
program or activity; and
(v) assessments of the recipient
capabilities, absorptive capacity, and
political will to achieve program or activity
objectives.
(B) A description of potential logistical and
methodological challenges to implementation, including
the necessary resources, staffing, and authorities to
address such challenges and complete the requirements
of subsection (a).
(C) A plan to update, as needed, existing systems
that assess, monitor, and evaluate the execution of
security assistance and security cooperation programs
and activities, on a country-by-country basis, that are
carried out by the Department and the Department of
Defense.
(D) Options to enable visibility for the
appropriate congressional committees of all country-
level data required by subparagraph (A).
(E) Options to promote increased transparency and
visibility of security assistance and security
cooperation programs and activities for researchers
engaged in research and development projects on
security cooperation pursuant to section 384(g)(3) of
title 10, United States Code, as well as evaluators
contractors pursuant to section 383 of such title that
promote security cooperation lessons learned.
(3) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this
subsection, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee
on Armed Services, and the Committee on Appropriations
of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the
Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate.
SEC. 6. ASSESSMENT, MONITORING, AND EVALUATION.
(a) In General.--Not later than 18 months after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Coordinator shall develop and maintain an
assessment, monitoring, and evaluation program to be conducted for any
country receiving significant security assistance.
(b) Elements.--The program described in paragraph (1) shall include
each of the following elements:
(1) Baseline assessments that include the following
factors:
(A) The quality of security sector governance of
such country, based on the measurements of the
following, and the manner in which the country's
performance on such measurements are likely to be
influenced by the provision of security assistance:
(i) The level of state corruption, as
defined under the Combating Global Corruption
Act (22 U.S.C. 10501), in the country's
security sector.
(ii) The level of civilian oversight of the
security forces.
(iii) The level of the security forces'--
(I) involvement in politics;
(II) commercial holdings; and
(III) merit-based promotions.
(iv) The record of violations of
international human rights law, international
humanitarian law, and civilian harm by security
force actors or their affiliates and subsequent
meaningful investigations and accountability
processes.
(v) Other factors relevant to assessing the
level of security sector governance.
(B) The commitment and political will of the
recipient to use such assistance in a manner that
achieves mutual objectives.
(C) Recipient country threat perceptions and the
manner in which such perceptions may inform the use of
security assistance.
(D) The recipient's capacity to absorb the security
assistance given and to achieve the objectives of such
assistance.
(E) Country- or region-specific opportunities and
risks that could enhance or impair the outcomes
associated with providing security assistance.
(2) Identification of the short- and long-term desired
outcomes or goals of the bilateral security partnership with
the country and whether such assistance is achieving those
outcomes or goals.
(3) Monitoring implementation of security assistance
programs, projects, and activities to measure progress toward
achieving specific targets, metrics, or indicators.
(4) Identification of lessons learned in carrying out
security assistance and recommendations for improving future
assistance.
(c) Oversight and Framework.--The Coordinator shall guide and
support, in coordination with relevant regional and functional bureaus,
the assessment and monitoring described in subsection (a) and shall
create a common evaluation framework.
(d) Availability of Funds.--Funds available to the Political-
Military Affairs Bureau, and other funds available to the Department of
State for security assistance programs and activities of the Department
of State, may be used to carry out the program required by this
section.
SEC. 7. SECURITY ASSISTANCE FRAMEWORK AND PLANNING.
(a) Framework for Security Assistance.--Not later than 18 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Coordinator shall
create and submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a
framework to be used by relevant bureaus and diplomatic posts to guide
regional and country-specific planning, such as joint regional
strategies or integrated country strategies or their equivalents, with
respect to security assistance based on the following:
(1) Identification and prioritization of overall goals and
objectives for security assistance, in accordance with the
relevant National Security Strategy.
(2) Criteria for--
(A) identifying opportunities and risks created by
the provision of security assistance; and
(B) tailoring and sequencing such assistance
accordingly.
(3) Guidance for--
(A) incorporating the assessment, monitoring, and
evaluation program described in section 6 into the
strategic planning cycle pursuant to GPRA Modernization
Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-352), and the amendments
made by that Act, and any other relevant law; and
(B) increasing coordination, as appropriate, with
other major international donors to maximize resources
and unity of efforts.
(4) Metrics for assessing the effectiveness of security
assistance in--
(A) increasing the operational access and influence
of the United States when there is a demonstrated,
strategic need for such access and influence;
(B) improving partner capacity and commitment to
countering shared threats and increased burden sharing,
including in ways that enable reallocation of United
States military deployments to other high priority
missions; and
(C) contributing to the maintenance of existing
peace treaties between recipients of assistance.
(5) A process to ensure that transfers regulated by the
Department that are outside the scope of security assistance,
such as certain direct commercial sales, are factored into--
(A) the implementation of the assessment,
monitoring, and evaluation program described in
subsection (a); and
(B) the planning process described in subsection
(c).
(b) Security Assistance Planning.--
(1) Country prioritization.--Not later than 2 years after
the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter,
the Coordinator shall develop and submit in accordance with
subsection (c) a list, including justifications, of priority
recipient countries to receive security assistance, on the
basis of--
(A) policy objectives determined by the Secretary;
and
(B) the political conditions present in such
recipient countries to achieve such policy objectives.
(2) Inclusion in regional and country strategies.--Any
comprehensive regional strategy, such as a joint regional
strategy or its equivalent, and any country strategy, such as
an integrated country strategy or its equivalent, that is
produced by the Department of State on or after the date that
is 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
each successor strategy to such strategy, shall integrate
security assistance planning in a manner that incorporates the
elements of the framework created pursuant to subsection (a)
and include an annex relating to security assistance, which
shall include--
(A) the assessment, monitoring, and evaluation
baseline assessments described in section 6;
(B) requests to allocate security assistance with
respect to the area covered by the strategy; and
(C) a description of the manner in which such
resources will be used.
(3) Coordination of resources.--In developing annexes
relating to security assistance for inclusion in comprehensive
regional strategies or country strategies in accordance with
paragraph (2), the relevant bureau, office, or diplomatic post
shall coordinate with--
(A) the Office;
(B) the Office of Foreign Assistance Resources, or
an equivalent entity in the Department, regarding the
allocation of resources in line with priorities of the
Department of State for security assistance; and
(C) the Department of Defense and other relevant
Federal departments and agencies that provide security
assistance, security cooperation, or other forms of
foreign assistance.
(c) Reporting Requirements.--Beginning 3 years after the date of
the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall
include with any materials submitted in support of the budget for that
fiscal year that is submitted to Congress by the President under
section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, an unclassified report,
that may include a classified annex, with the following:
(1) A list of priority security assistance recipients,
along with descriptions of the policy objectives that the
Secretary seeks to achieve by providing such assistance to such
recipients, developed pursuant to subsection (b)(1).
(2) A description of the results of the evaluations
conducted pursuant to section 6(c).
(3) A description of the manner in which the Department
will allocate, monitor, and evaluate all security assistance
pursuant to the program described in section 7 and the planning
process described in subsection (b).
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act--
(1) except as otherwise provided, the term ``appropriate
congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Armed Services of the House of
Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;
(2) the term ``Coordinator'' means the Coordinator for
Security Assistance established under section 2(b)(2);
(3) the term ``Department'' means the Department of State;
(4) except as otherwise provided, the term ``Office'' means
the Office of Security Assistance designated under section
2(b);
(5) except as otherwise provided, the term ``Secretary''
means the Secretary of State; and
(6) the term ``security assistance'' means assistance
provided under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2151 et seq.), the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et
seq.) (other than Foreign Military Sales or direct commercial
sales), or any other provision of law.
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