[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
GLOBAL HEALTH INNOVATION ACT OF 2015;
AGOA ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2015;
FIRST RESPONDERS PASSPORT ACT OF 2015;
AND FOREIGN AID TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015
=======================================================================
MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H.R. 2241, H.R. 2845, H.R. 3750 and H.R. 3766
__________
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-112
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
or
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
97-463PDF WASHINGTON : 2015
________________________________________________________________________________________
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office,
http://bookstore.gpo.gov. For more information, contact the GPO Customer Contact Center,
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Phone 202-512-1800, or 866-512-1800 (toll-free).
E-mail, [email protected].
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
CURT CLAWSON, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
TOM EMMER, MinnesotaUntil 5/18/
15 deg.
DANIEL DONOVAN, New YorkAs
of 5/19/15 deg.
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
MARKUP OF
H.R. 2241, To direct the Administrator of the United States
Agency for International Development to submit to Congress a
report on the development and use of global health innovations
in the programs, projects, and activities of the Agency........ 2
Amendment to H.R. 2241 offered by the Honorable Albio Sires, a
Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey...... 6
H.R. 2845, To promote access to benefits under the African Growth
and Opportunity Act, and for other purposes.................... 7
H.R. 3750, To waive the passport fees for first responders
proceeding abroad to aid a foreign country suffering from a
natural disaster............................................... 13
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3750 offered by
the Honorable Darrell E. Issa, a Representative in Congress
from the State of California................................. 15
H.R. 3766, To direct the President to establish guidelines for
United States foreign development and economic assistance
programs, and for other purposes............................... 17
APPENDIX
Markup notice.................................................... 40
Markup minutes................................................... 41
Markup summary................................................... 43
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey: Prepared statement............... 44
GLOBAL HEALTH INNOVATION ACT OF 2015;
AGOA ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2015;.
FIRST RESPONDERS PASSPORT ACT OF 2015;.
AND FOREIGN AID TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015
----------
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2015
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:18 a.m., in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Chairman Royce. So this committee will come to order. And
pursuant to notice, we meet today to mark up four bipartisan
measures. Without objection, all members may have 5 days to
submit any statements for the record or any extraneous
materials that they want to include on today's business.
All members were notified yesterday we intend to consider
today's measures en bloc. And so, without objection, the
following items previously provided to members will be
considered en bloc and are considered as read.
And those are H.R. 2241, the Global Health Innovation Act
of 2015, with the Sires amendment 210 to H.R. 2241. Second,
H.R. 2845, the African Growth and Opportunity Act Enhancement
Act of 2015. Third, H.R. 3750, the First Responders Passport
Act of 2015, with the Issa amendment 50 in the nature of a
substitute to this House resolution. And H.R. 3766, the Foreign
Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2015.
[The information referred to follows:]H.R.
2241 deg.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Royce. And after recognizing myself and the
ranking member, I will be pleased to recognize any member
seeking recognition to speak on these measures.
So we begin with the AGOA Enhancement Act markup. And I
will just tell you, just as a reminder, we recently passed AGOA
and gave it a 10-year extension. And I thank the members for
their help on that and thank Congresswoman Karen Bass in
particular. We have been involved in this committee since 1998
when we wrote the original measure here, part of it, as
cosponsors.
AGOA, obviously, allows qualified sub-Saharan African
countries to export thousands and thousands of goods, like
apparel and energy and other products, to the United States on
a duty-free basis, but it is done in conjunction with changes
made that help civil society in these African countries with
respect to the rule of law and developing independent courts.
So it has helped draw hundreds of millions of dollars in
foreign investment into the subcontinent, and it has helped put
thousands of Africans into much needed work. It is good for
exporters too. As you know, about two-thirds of the countries
in Africa qualify for AGOA. But to qualify you have to take
certain steps toward rule of law.
In May of this year, Congress successfully reauthorized
AGOA, as I shared with you, for 10 years. This bill, the AGOA
Enhancement Act, contains provisions that will improve trade
capacity and relations between African companies and companies
here in the United States. Namely, the Millennium Challenge
Corporation, or MCC, will be allowed to enter into a second
compact in an eligible country for purposes of promoting
economic integration and trade, helping to unlock a region's
full potential for growth. And the bill also modernizes AGOA's
implementation by getting more information about its trade
preferences online, so that companies on both sides of the
Atlantic can better understand and utilize AGOA's benefits.
So I, again, want to thank our ranking member, Mr. Engel,
and the Africa Subcommittee Chairman Smith for his work on
this, and Ranking Member Bass, for their support.
Second, we have H.R. 3766, the Foreign Aid Transparency and
Accountability Act, which will enhance--well, the bill will
ensure that many Federal departments and agencies that
implement these programs, these foreign aid programs,
coordinate and not duplicate efforts and apply the lessons
learned from evaluations so we can do more of what works in
development and less of what doesn't work. And the bill is the
result of years of consultation and collaboration between
Congress and the administration and experts and advocates.
And I want to thank the bill's sponsor, Judge Poe, and his
coauthor, Mr. Connolly, for their steadfast work and leadership
in bringing this before us today.
Third, we have H.R. 3750, the First Responders Passport
Act. This will allow the Secretary of State to waive passport
fees for individuals working with the U.S. Government to
respond to natural disasters abroad.
Many of us represent teams that deploy around the globe
just hours after a disaster hits. This makes us very proud. But
every year, brave Americans volunteer to be on call for this
duty, but as a result must bear the expense of ensuring their
passports are up to date. And this act will provide a small but
important benefit for those who represent us so well, such as
the team that deployed to Nepal.
Lastly, H.R. 2241, the Global Health Innovation Act,
directs the Administrator of U.S. Agency for International
Development to provide Congress with five annual reports on the
Agency's efforts to develop and apply new, innovative health
technologies within U.S. Global Health Programs.
The reason that is of interest to us is because through
USAID, through the Global Development Lab and the Center for
Accelerating Innovation and Impact, they have partnered with a
lot of private sector groups to develop and bring to scale low-
cost, high-impact health technologies. We are seeing that
impact particularly in maternal health.
So these reports will improve our oversight of this
important effort. And I thank Mr. Sires for bringing this
forward in a timely measure.
And I want to turn to Ranking Member Karen Bass of the
Africa Subcommittee for her opening remarks.
Ms. Bass. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In true fashion, the AGOA Enhancement Act is bipartisan.
And I want to think Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and
the Africa Subcommittee chair, Chris Smith, for their
longstanding and consistent support of AGOA and their foresight
regarding the need to ensure that the reauthorized AGOA is
implemented in a transparent and effective manner and supported
by complementary legislation, such as the AGOA Enhancement Act.
I also want to thank the HFAC committee staffers who worked
long and hard and creatively on this bill to ensure its
relevancy and complementary support of AGOA.
The AGOA Enhancement Act does exactly what its title
suggests, it enhances AGOA by strengthening transparency and
commonsense priorities aimed at enabling eligible AGOA
countries to utilize AGOA benefits more effectively by
obtaining greater access to information about AGOA, developing
trade capacity building, and expanding regional economic
coordination.
Transparency is addressed by requiring the administration
to, for example, create an AGOA Web site for the collection and
dissemination of information regarding AGOA. Trade capacity
building is addressed by requiring that the administration
encourage and facilitate transboundary cooperation among
eligible African countries in order to facilitate trade and
encourage the provision of technical assistance to eligible
African countries.
H.R. 2845 also recognizes the unique role played by the
U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC--and I want to
take a moment to acknowledge MCC's leadership and their stellar
staff--in economic development and its success working with
nations to improve economic growth and address regional
integration. MCC is enabled to work with partner countries on a
regional basis. The MCC requested this authority as a way to
better leverage and facilitate economic growth through its
investments and supports this provision being included.
Over the next 10 years, Africa will become an even more
important part of the world economy with a large youthful
population that is increasingly university educated, tech
savvy, and entrepreneurial. Without question, it is in the
interest of the United States and the countries of Africa, the
world's new economic frontier, that we work together toward a
stronger and mutually beneficial economic relationship that
will stand the test of time.
Thank you, and I yield back my time.
Chairman Royce. The ranking member, Mr. Eliot Engel.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling
up these bipartisan measures. It is good, as always, to see our
committee working together to advance legislation and getting
it to the House floor.
Let me begin with Chairman Royce's measure, the African
Growth and Opportunity Act Enhancement Act of 2015. Earlier
this year, Congress authorized the African Growth and
Opportunity Act through 2025. That bill seeks to promote trade
between Africa and the United States, but it has become clear
that a number of eligible countries lack sufficient capacity to
reap the program's benefits.
H.R. 2845, which I am proud to cosponsor along with Rep.
Bass and Rep. Smith, would encourage the United States to work
with sub-Saharan African governments to improve the rule of
law, strengthen and expand the private sector, reduce
bureaucratic barriers to trade, and promote the role of women
on the continent.
In short, this bill seeks to improve investment, trade, and
job growth in the region. This, in turn, would strengthen the
global economy and encourage development in sub-Saharan Africa,
two priorities for this committee.
Let me next thank my friend, Albio Sires, for introducing
H.R. 2241, the Global Health Innovation Act of 2015. The Ebola
epidemic and other public health crises remind us there is a
vital need for the United States to maintain our research and
development efforts and response capabilities in the health
field.
Over the years, USAID has made some major advances in
health research and development. We have seen that through
innovative programs such as the Malaria Vaccine Development
Program. And successive administrations have rightly supported
a significant expansion of those efforts.
H.R. 2241 directs USAID to report annually to Congress on
its new programs, projects, and activities related to global
health. It is important that the Agency continues to focus on
innovation, and it is important for the Congress to make sure
that the resources it receives are spent in the most effective
way possible.
Next, I would like to thank Rep. Issa for introducing H.R.
3750, and I am proud to be a cosponsor of this measure. This
bill would authorize the Secretary of State to waive passport
fees for the brave Americans who help other countries in times
of natural disaster.
USAID search-and-rescue teams based in Fairfax County,
Virginia, Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Los Angeles County,
California, have played an essential role in the aftermath of
many overseas natural disasters, including earthquakes that
have struck Nepal, Haiti, Japan, and New Zealand. These teams
provide specialized capabilities and demonstrate our commitment
to international partners during times of need.
We need to be ready to respond, and waiving passport fees
is the least we can do for Americans who risk life and limb to
help other countries during times of despair. The State
Department and USAID support this measure, and I urge my
colleagues to do so as well.
And finally, let me thank Congressman Poe for introducing
the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act, along with
Congressman Connolly for his hard work on this measure. The
State Department, under Secretary Hillary Clinton, and USAID,
under the leadership of Raj Shah, took major steps to improve
monitoring, evaluation, and transparency in our foreign
assistance programs.
These improvements include the first-ever Presidential
policy directive on development in the Foreign Assistance
Dashboard, an initiative that collects information from across
the Federal Government, increasing transparency in foreign
assistance programs.
This legislation seeks to double down on these
groundbreaking efforts to help the government and the American
people better understand how their development investments
improve lives around the world.
So again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your work, as usual,
to move forward with these bills and on all these subjects.
And, as always, thank you for working with us in a bipartisan
manner. I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Engel.
We go now to Judge Poe.
Mr. Poe. I want to thank the chairman and the ranking
member for moving this legislation forward. And I also want to
thank my friend from Virginia, Mr. Connolly, for his work on
the foreign aid bill that we are talking about today. H.R.
3766.
Foreign assistance has been around 50 years-plus. And what
this legislation does is make that assistance transparent, let
the American public and everyone else know what we are doing
all over the world, and make it easy to understand. Some of the
postings by government agencies regarding what they are doing
are so complicated you can't figure out what that means.
So the transparency aspect is the first aspect of this
legislation, transparent about foreign assistance, and make it
easy for everyone to understand what we are doing, the good
that we are doing throughout the world.
The second half of this legislation is to evaluate those
programs. One would think that we have over the years evaluated
foreign assistance, but we haven't really evaluated it to see
whether it is working or not. So an evaluation is required of
departments that give American money as assistance, evaluate
those programs to see, first of all, if they are reaching the
goal of the program and the assistance. And if it is not
reaching that goal, then we need to evaluate whether we should
continue that type of assistance.
We continue to give money to certain programs and we really
don't know whether it is working to solve the problem of hunger
or water or whatever it is somewhere in the world. So the
evaluation must take place by all these departments, evaluate
the things that are working, things that continue to work and
are doing good assistance. We may continue those. And if it is
not working, then we need to stop that program.
So it is an audit, I would call it an audit of foreign
assistance that we are doing. If it works, continue to do it.
If not, then reevaluate it, maybe we should not. One percent of
the budget goes to foreign assistance. Therefore, with the
limited money, we certainly should find out what we are doing,
transparency, and we should also find out and evaluate all of
the programs to see whether they are a success or not.
And thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Poe.
Mr. Connolly, I want to recognize Mr. Connolly. He looks
apprehensive here.
Mr. Connolly. No. No. I wasn't quite sure what you were
looking at.
I thank the chair and the ranking member for putting this
on the agenda today. And I want to thank Judge Poe for his
leadership. We have been doing this together for a couple of
years now and we are so glad to have it.
This bill directs the President to establish monitoring and
evaluation guidelines for the 22 Federal agencies charged with
implementing development and economic assistance programs
abroad, chief among them, of course, USAID. The guidelines will
require M&E plans as part of the project development process
and agencies will be encouraged to incorporate the findings of
project evaluations and impact studies.
Aid programs that are held accountable for their
performance and results can be made more effective, as Judge
Poe just indicated, and their impact on communities and
countries abroad more easily measured. And if we do that, as
Judge Poe just said, we can dispel the notion in public polling
that, apparently, foreign assistance is 26 percent of the
Federal budget, when, of course, it is less than 1 percent.
The U.S. foreign assistance operation does not lack
passion. The men and women who put themselves in harm's way in
often very remote parts of the globe or take their families to
those parts of the world in the interest of helping vulnerable
populations certainly aren't seeking glory, fame, or fortune.
They do it because they envision a path to prosperity for
others even in the most poverty-stricken areas of the world.
While our passion is well defined, our mission and metrics
are not. Regarding the mission, I was a staffer on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee that wrote the last foreign aid
authorization bill passed by Congress back in 1986. In that
time, we had, like, five principal goals. Today, we have 260.
And the mission is not clear. The mission statement just a
year ago for USAID read: ``USAID accelerates human progress in
developing countries by reducing poverty, advancing democracy,
building market economies, promoting security, responding to
crises, and improving quality of life. Working with governance
institutions and civil society, we assist individuals to build
their own futures by mobilizing the full range of American
public and private resources through our expert presence
overseas.'' That is not a clear mission.
So I am hopeful, Mr. Chairman, this bill will help focus--
refocus--U.S. foreign assistance programs in a more efficacious
way. And I am proud to call myself a cosponsor of this
legislation and am, again, grateful for Judge Poe for his
leadership. I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Connolly.
We are going to go to Mr. Issa and then to Mr. Sires.
Mr. Issa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And in the case of H.R.
3750, I will be very brief.
The State Department has needed this authority for a long
time, although on a routine basis there are as few as 450
individuals that this would cover in the way of first
responders, and at any given time, with a typical 10-year
passport, only a few would need it.
However, if there is a catastrophic event somewhere within
the world and we call on a large number of first responders,
many of whom may not have current passports, the ability to
quickly waive it is a capability the State Department would
want and need if the United States Government is directing
these first responders to go to the distressed area.
And as CBO has scored it as narrowly targeted, fixed, and
it will be a negligible amount and can be paid out of existing
funds, it has no CBO score. It is something the State
Department very much believes is in their best interest to have
in the case of a major event and will have a de minimus cost
compared to the cost of transporting those individuals and the
benefit to America of having first responders go to the scene
of a catastrophe.
And so I urge the support. And I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Issa.
We go now to Mr. Sires.
Mr. Sires. I want to start by thanking Chairman Royce,
Ranking Member Engel for their work on global health and their
efforts to mark up this bill. I would also like to thank the
many members of this committee who have cosponsored this bill
and all the staff that worked on this bill.
H.R. 2241, the Global Health Innovation Act, is a bill that
will provide the oversight needed to gain a clearer picture of
USAID's global health research and development. Over the years,
research and development projects have greatly expanded at
USAID in searching for advancement toward an HIV- and AIDS-free
generation, in preventable maternal and childhood death, and
preventable infectious disease.
This legislation is an effort to keep up with the scope of
USAID's expanded effort and ensure their research and
development activities reflect their goals and priorities. This
report asks them to provide clarity on their goals and metrics
to better understand their work. H.R. 2241 directs the USAID's
Administrator to report annually to Congress on the development
and use of global health innovations in USAID's programs,
projects, and activities.
The report must also include how the Agency measures
progress, investment, and development toward their health-
related goals. Lastly, the amendment I introduced will sunset
this requirement after five reports.
I thank the committee for their time and urge my colleagues
to support this legislation. I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Thank you, Mr. Sires.
And I will remind members, you can put statements into the
record. We are in the last 7 minutes of the vote or so. And if
there are any necessary statements, I think we have covered
those who are authors or coauthors of amendments.
Any other members seek time? If not, hearing no further
requests for recognition, the question occurs on the items
considered en bloc.
All those in favor, say aye.
All those opposed, no.
In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it and the
measures considered en bloc are agreed to.
So, without objection, the measures considered en bloc are
ordered favorably reported as amended and staff is directed to
make any technical and conforming changes. And also, without
objection, the chair is authorized to seek House consideration
of these measures under suspension of the rules.
That concludes our business today. And I want to thank
Ranking Member Engel and all of our committee members for their
contributions and assistance with this markup today. We stand
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:41 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all]