[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 107 (Tuesday, July 5, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4267-H4270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FOREIGN AID TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the
Senate amendments to the bill (H.R. 3766) to direct the President to
establish guidelines for United States foreign development and economic
assistance programs, and for other purposes.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the Senate amendments is as follows:
Senate amendments:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Foreign Aid Transparency and
Accountability Act of 2016''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;
(B) the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate;
(C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives; and
(D) the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
(2) Evaluation.--The term ``evaluation'' means, with
respect to a covered United States foreign 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--
(A) making judgments and evaluations regarding the program;
(B) improving program effectiveness; and
(C) informing decisions about current and future
programming.
(3) Covered united states foreign assistance.--The term
``covered United States foreign
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assistance'' means assistance authorized under--
(A) part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2151 et seq.), except for--
(i) title IV of chapter 2 of such part (relating to the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation); and
(ii) chapter 3 of such part (relating to International
Organizations and Programs);
(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.).
SEC. 3. GUIDELINES FOR COVERED UNITED STATES FOREIGN
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Purposes.--The purposes of this section are to--
(1) evaluate the performance of covered United States
foreign assistance and its contribution to the policies,
strategies, projects, program goals, and priorities
undertaken by the Federal Government;
(2) support and promote innovative programs to improve
effectiveness; and
(3) coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes of
Federal departments and agencies that administer covered
United States foreign 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, according to best practices of
monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses, for the
establishment of measurable goals, performance metrics, and
monitoring and evaluation plans that can be applied with
reasonable consistency to covered United States foreign
assistance.
(c) Objectives of Guidelines.--
(1) In general.--The guidelines established pursuant to
subsection (b) shall provide direction to Federal departments
and agencies that administer covered United States foreign
assistance on--
(A) monitoring the use of resources;
(B) evaluating the outcomes and impacts of covered United
States foreign assistance projects and programs; and
(C) applying the findings and conclusions of such
evaluations to proposed project and program design.
(2) Objectives.--The guidelines established pursuant to
subsection (b) shall provide direction to Federal departments
and agencies that administer covered United States foreign
assistance on how to--
(A) establish annual monitoring and evaluation objectives
and timetables 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, including measurable goals and performance metrics,
and to identify the resources necessary to conduct such
evaluations, which should be covered by program costs;
(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 covered United
States foreign 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, or conduct performance evaluations and provide a
justification for not conducting an impact evaluation when
such an evaluation is deemed inappropriate or impracticable;
(H) develop a clearinghouse capacity for the collection,
dissemination, and preservation of knowledge and lessons
learned to guide future programs for United States foreign
assistance personnel, implementing partners, the donor
community, and aid recipient governments;
(I) internally distribute evaluation reports;
(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, as appropriate,
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, reliable, and timely data, including
from local beneficiaries and stakeholders, are available to
monitoring and evaluation personnel to permit the objective
evaluation of the effectiveness of covered United States
foreign assistance programs, including an assessment of
assumptions and limitations in such evaluations; and
(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) President's Report.--Not later than 18 months after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall submit
a report to the appropriate congressional committees that
contains a detailed description of the guidelines established
pursuant to subsection (b). The report shall be submitted in
unclassified form, but it may contain a classified annex.
(e) Comptroller General's Report.--The Comptroller General
of the United States shall, not later than 18 months after
the report required by subsection (d) is submitted to
Congress, submit to the appropriate congressional committees
a report that--
(1) analyzes the guidelines established pursuant to
subsection (b); and
(2) assesses the implementation of the guidelines by the
agencies, bureaus, and offices that implement covered United
States foreign assistance as outlined in the President's
budget request.
SEC. 4. INFORMATION ON COVERED UNITED STATES FOREIGN
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Publication of Information.--
(1) Update of existing website.--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 website,
``ForeignAssistance.gov'', to make publicly available
comprehensive, timely, and comparable information on covered
United States foreign assistance programs, including all
information required under subsection (b) that is available
to the Secretary of State.
(2) Information sharing.--Not later than 2 years after the
date of the enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter,
the head of each Federal department or agency that
administers covered United States foreign assistance shall
provide the Secretary of State with comprehensive information
about the covered United States foreign assistance programs
carried out by such department or agency.
(3) Updates to website.--Not later than 2 years after the
date of the enactment of this Act, and quarterly thereafter,
the Secretary of State shall publish, on the
``ForeignAssistance.gov'' website or through a successor
online publication, the information provided under subsection
(b).
(b) Matters To Be Included.--
(1) In general.--The information described in subsection
(a)--
(A) shall be published for each country on a detailed
basis, such as award-by-award; or
(B) if assistance is provided on a regional level, shall be
published for each such region on a detailed basis, such as
award-by-award.
(2) Types of information.--
(A) In general.--To ensure the transparency,
accountability, and effectiveness of covered United States
foreign 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, and evaluations in accordance with section
3(c)(2)(J);
(ii) basic descriptive summaries for covered United States
foreign assistance programs and awards under such programs;
and
(iii) obligations and expenditures.
(B) Publication.--Each type of information described in
subparagraph (A) shall be published or updated on the
appropriate website not later than 90 days after the date on
which the information is issued.
(C) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this paragraph may be
construed to require a Federal department or agency that
administers covered United States foreign assistance to
provide any information that does not relate to, or is not
otherwise required by, the covered United States foreign
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.
(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, including the
basis for such determination, in writing to the appropriate
congressional committees.
(C) Form.--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 under paragraph (1),
(2), or (3) of subsection (a), 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) not to make the
information publicly available, the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, in consultation with the head of such
department or agency, not later than one year after the date
of the enactment of this Act, shall submit a consolidated
report to the appropriate congressional committees that
includes, 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
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(B) a description of the department's or agency's plan and
timeline for--
(i) making such information publicly available; and
(ii) ensuring that such information is made publicly
available in subsequent years.
(c) Scope of Information.--The online publication required
under subsection (a) shall, at a minimum--
(1) in each of the fiscal years 2016 through 2019, provide
the information required under subsection (b) for fiscal
years 2015 through the current fiscal year; and
(2) for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year thereafter,
provide the information required under subsection (b) for the
immediately preceding 5 fiscal years in a fully searchable
form.
(d) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development should coordinate
the consolidation of processes and data collection and
presentation for the Department of State's website,
``ForeignAssistance.gov'', and the United States Agency for
International Development's website, ``Explorer.USAID.gov'',
to the extent that is possible to maximize efficiencies, no
later than the end of fiscal year 2018.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Royce) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
General Leave
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to
include extraneous material on the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in strong support of H.R. 3766, the Foreign Aid Transparency
and Accountability Act, and I would like to thank Judge Ted Poe,
chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade,
for his years of dedication to this important issue.
Effective U.S. foreign assistance can help advance the diplomatic,
economic, and national security interests of the United States, and it
can help support the growth of healthier, more stable societies. It can
provide alternatives to extremism. It can combat global health threats,
foster self-sufficiency, and open new markets to U.S. trade and
investment. But it can also be wasted, as it has many times, and that
is why making U.S. foreign assistance as efficient and effective as
possible has been a central focus of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
This is no easy task. There are more than 20 Federal departments and
agencies delivering food aid. Too many of them do not share our
interest in transparency, accountability, and results.
Too often, the importance of an agency is measured by the amount of
resources it controls and not by its positive impact. Unfortunately,
the success of initiatives are too often measured by ``things
delivered,'' like bed nets, instead of ``program outcomes,'' like
malaria infections averted and lives saved. As long as our foreign aid
agencies and organizations are allowed to operate beyond scrutiny,
nothing will change.
Congress needs the tools to break down these barriers to effective
aid. We need to help U.S. foreign aid agencies and organizations
improve coordination, identify duplication, eliminate waste, and learn
from experience, and this bill will help.
The Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act will establish
tough standards for monitoring and evaluation. It will ensure that many
Federal departments and agencies that implement these programs, all of
them, coordinate, rather than duplicate, their efforts and then apply
the lessons learned. And it will require these agencies to publish
foreign assistance data on a consolidated Web site so we can better
track investments against results.
This bill is the result of years of consultation and collaboration
between Congress, experts, and advocates, and I want to again thank
Judge Poe as well as Representative Connolly for their steadfast work
and leadership in bringing this important measure before us today. I
also thank our ranking member, Eliot Engel of New York.
I would urge Members to support this bill and get it to the
President's desk without further delay.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this measure.
I want to again thank our chairman, Ed Royce, for his leadership on
the Foreign Affairs Committee. I want to thank my colleagues who have
worked so hard on this bill, Mr. Poe of Texas and Mr. Connolly of
Virginia.
We marked up this bill in the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the
House approved it last winter. The Senate sent it back to us with a few
changes, and now I am pleased that we are taking a final vote on this
measure before we send it to the President's desk.
Mr. Speaker, I view foreign assistance as one of our most important
foreign policy tools. Whether we are helping a community build a school
and train teachers, helping a country improve its power grid, or making
it easier for farmers to irrigate their fields and families to get
clean water, foreign assistance shows the rest of the world that the
United States is eager to be a friend and eager to be a partner. And
partnership is good for us as well.
Of course, foreign assistance isn't about handouts. It is about
helping build capacity and capabilities. We want to see countries
become vibrant and productive. We want to see societies become strong
and prosperous. Stronger partners around the world mean better lives
for the people in those countries and greater stability and security
for their neighbors and regions and, of course, a greater partnership
with the United States of America. That is important to us as well as
to the nations we are helping.
At its best, foreign assistance is like planting a seed, nurturing
it, and seeing it grow into something strong and self-sufficient. If we
are doing it right, it will give us a tremendous bang for our buck.
Foreign policy, foreign assistance is less than 1 percent of the
total American budget. Although people think it is 15 percent or even
more, it is less than 1 percent. But we don't have a lot to work with
because our foreign assistance represents that 1 percent, just a small
sliver of the Federal budget, so we need to know that these investments
are being put to the best use. We need to take a hard look at the
results in order to cut away dead wood and focus on the efforts that
are giving us the best outcomes.
The administration has already taken tremendous steps to provide
accountability and transparency in our foreign assistance programs.
This bill would write many of those steps into law and build on them,
requiring measurable goals for foreign aid and requiring strong plans
for monitoring and evaluation.
We need to see just what a difference our foreign assistance is
making and get a better understanding of the way foreign assistance
programs tie into our own national security interests, and they do. We
have national security concerns, and foreign aid is one way of
addressing those concerns.
So I am glad to support this measure. I am grateful for the hard work
of Mr. Poe, Mr. Connolly, and Chairman Royce.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, I again want to thank my colleagues for
their work on this measure, and I am pleased that we are getting near
the finish line.
Let me just say that, as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs
Committee, I often hear the question: Why are we sending tax dollars
overseas when we have our share of problems here at home?
It is a fair question, but there are good answers.
The United States isn't an island. Our stability and security are
tied to those countries around the world. We see where threats emerge.
Often they emerge in places where there is a lack of opportunity, poor
access to education, weak justice systems, poor governance.
When we send assistance overseas, we are not just putting cash in
people's pockets willy-nilly. We are targeting these areas that we know
are tied to making countries more stable. We are looking at the root
causes of instability and helping countries overcome those challenges
so, hopefully, they can thrive on their own.
But we need to make sure we are using these limited dollars
efficiently
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and effectively. The administration has taken the groundbreaking
measures to track and publicize the effectiveness of our foreign
assistance programs. This bill will make those efforts stronger. It
will help us and all the American people know exactly what our foreign
assistance investments are paying for and that they are paying
dividends in the long run.
I want to again stress the partnership because it is a fair question
to say: Well, we have pressing needs here at home. Why are we sending
money abroad?
We look at the instability of the world. We see terrorism. We see
what is happening. The United States has a stake in having partners all
around the world. The United States has a stake in making conditions
better for people all around the world so that radicalism isn't
appealing. People can understand that what we have to offer is just so
much better.
This partnership is important. This bill sustains that partnership,
so I am glad to support the bill. I urge a ``yes'' vote.
I thank Chairman Royce.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Smart investments and development can help support growth of
healthier, more stable societies, open markets that can generate
consumers of U.S. goods. It can create opportunities for people there
and for U.S. businesses to grow. But unwise investments can have the
exact opposite effect.
This bill will give us the tools we need to make our foreign aid
programs more smart and wise, and I strongly support this bill. I urge
its adoption.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Senate
Amendment to the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of
2016 (H.R. 3766).
I want to thank my friend, Judge Ted Poe of Texas, for working with
me to introduce and advance this bill.
I also want to thank Chairman Ed Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for previously marking up this
measure in Committee and bringing it to the Floor today.
And finally, I want to thank our colleagues in the Senate, including
Senators Cardin, Rubio, and Leahy for working with us to strengthen the
bill and shepherd it through the Senate.
The Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act is a project that
I have worked on with Judge Poe for several years now, and in December
2015 this bill passed in the House by voice vote.
The bill directs the President to establish monitoring and evaluation
or M&E guidelines for the federal agencies charged with implementing
foreign assistance programs abroad.
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 into subsequent
foreign assistance programs.
This feedback loop will include measurable goals, performance
metrics, and a clearing house for lessons learned on U.S.-led aid
projects.
Additionally, the legislation requires that the documents and reports
created under this M&E regime be made available to the public on
foreignassistance.gov.
This administration has developed an encouraging record on foreign
aid transparency. The Foreign Assistance Dashboard created in 2010
demonstrated a promising inclination towards disclosure that we should
hope to enshrine in law.
This measure will strengthen and codify those transparency best
practices to ensure that they exist as agency policy under future
Administrations that might not be as accommodating of the aid
community's demand for this information.
Aid programs that are held accountable for their performance and
results can be made more effective, and their impact on communities and
countries abroad can be more easily demonstrated.
Perhaps with more information, we can dispel the commonly held belief
that 26 percent of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid when the
actual amount is less than 1 percent.
I am hopeful that this bill will help foreign assistance operations
become more focused and efficacious.
It is time to apply a data driven approach to constructing an
assistance operation that has the support of Congress and a well-
informed public.
We cannot ignore the increasingly important role diplomacy and
development play in meeting our most pressing security challenges and
demonstrating American leadership in global affairs.
It is an act of political malpractice that this vital part of the
federal budget is so misunderstood and that the direct link between our
national security and stability and prosperity abroad is so
underappreciated.
I urge my colleagues to join the Modernizing Foreign Assistance
Network, the Professional Services Council, the U.S. Global Leadership
Coalition, and several other well-regarded members of the foreign
assistance community in supporting this bipartisan legislation and
foster greater understanding of our vital investments abroad.
I would like to close by thanking, once again, Judge Poe for his
leadership on the issue of foreign aid effectiveness.
I think his advocacy is motivated by a shared belief that our foreign
assistance dollars have the potential to create a path to prosperity in
the most poverty stricken areas of the world, and nurture the promise
of democracy in the face of even the most repressive authoritarian
regimes.
I look forward to working with Judge Poe to ensure that those common
goals are advanced by the implementation of this legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from California (Mr. Royce) that the House suspend the rules
and concur in the Senate amendments to the bill, H.R. 3766.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the Senate amendments were concurred in.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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