[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 115 (Thursday, July 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4646-S4647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 2291. Mr. COONS submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill S. 4638, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of title XII, add the following:
Subtitle G--Locally Led Development and Humanitarian Response
SEC. 1291. SHORT TITLE.
This subtitle may be cited as the ``Locally Led Development
and Humanitarian Response Act''.
SEC. 1292. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this subtitle is to encourage USAID to
pursue a model of locally led development and humanitarian
response and expanded engagement and partnership with local
entities.
SEC. 1293. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) locally led development and humanitarian response--
(A) is more equitable and inclusive;
(B) is linked to more efficient and sustainable development
and humanitarian outcomes; and
(C) is vital to building long-term self-reliance;
(2) over multiple presidential 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.
SEC. 1294. DEFINITIONS.
In this subtitle:
(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) NICRA.--The term ``NICRA'' means Negotiated Indirect
Cost Rate.
(3) USAID.--The term ``USAID'' means the United States
Agency for International Development.
SEC. 1295. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS.
The Administrator of USAID should, to the extent feasible
and appropriate, localize the USAID partner base by--
(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 produced, or can produce, strong
trust, accountability, and legitimacy in the communities or
networks in which such partners work;
(2) diversifying award types to streamline performance
requirements and working with the Office of Management and
Budget to address threshold constraints, such as fixed
[[Page S4647]]
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 are 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 the capacity of USAID staff and local
partners to undertake risk management and mitigation;
(7) supporting consistent and unimpeded access to full cost
recovery for local partners implementing activities funded by
USAID;
(8) assessing current definitions of ``local partner'',
``local ownership'', and ``localization'' used by USAID for
programming and reporting metrics, and updating such
definitions, as necessary;
(9) undertaking outreach campaigns and engaging with local
partners (formally and informally) to raise awareness about
opportunities and the process for applying for and managing
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
NICRAs, in accordance with section 200.414(g) of title 2,
Code of Federal Regulations;
(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. 1296. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS.
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 taken pursuant to section 615,
to the extent appropriate and feasible, within all relevant
USAID internal rules and regulations, including--
(1) the Automated Directive System;
(2) the Acquisition and Assistance Strategy;
(3) the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy;
(4) the Localization of Humanitarian Assistance Strategy;
(5) the USAID Acquisition Regulation;
(6) the Local Systems Framework; and
(7) the Private Sector Engagement Policy.
SEC. 1297. 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--
(1) such acceptance eases the burden of a local entity
working with USAID; and
(2) USAID staff are 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 a report to Congress containing the results of the
assessment conducted pursuant to paragraph (1).
SEC. 1298. 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--
(1) to increase the de minimis indirect cost rate provided
for in section 200.414 of title 2, Code of Federal
Regulations, or in any successor regulations, to 15 percent
for local entities receiving USAID assistance awards;
(2) to establish a similar de minimis indirect cost rate of
15 percent for acquisitions awarded to local entities
pursuant to title 48, Code of Federal Regulations; and
(3) to further increase such threshold if such action is
recommended by regulations promulgated by the Office of
Management and Budget.
(b) Exemption for Local Entities.--The Administrator of
USAID is authorized to exempt local entities, as needed, from
the reporting requirements under 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 if such exemption is not granted
later than 30 days before the end of the award's period of
performance.
(c) Local Competition Authority.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Administrator of USAID, or a designee of the
Administrator, may award contracts and other acquisition
instruments in which competition is limited to local entities
if such process would--
(A) result in cost savings;
(B) strengthen local capacity; or
(C) enable USAID to deliver a program or activities more
sustainably or quickly than if competition were not so
limited.
(2) Limitation.--The authority granted under paragraph (1)
may not be used--
(A) to make acquisition awards in excess of $25,000,000; or
(B) with respect to more than 10 percent of the amounts
appropriated to USAID in any 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, may permit 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
chapter 7 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations, or chapter
7 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations.
SEC. 1299. ANNUAL REPORT.
Not later than 180 days after the last day of each fiscal
year, and annually thereafter, the Administrator of USAID
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees and
publish on the USAID website a report on the progress made by
USAID during the most recently completed fiscal year to
advance locally-led development and humanitarian response,
which shall include, with respect to the reporting period--
(1) the amount of funding expended directly or indirectly
by local entities, including through all development and
humanitarian assistance programs;
(2) an assessment of how USAID is enabling more local
leadership of programs funded by USAID, including--
(A) recipients of direct funding;
(B) subrecipients and subcontractors to an international
implementing partner;
(C) participants in a USAID-funded program; and
(D) members of a community affected by a USAID program;
(3) an assessment of progress made by USAID towards
implementing--
(A) the Acquisitions and Assistance Strategy;
(B) the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy;
(C) the Policy on Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance; and
(D) any other relevant strategies and policies;
(4) an assessment of--
(A) how USAID is using the new authorities granted under
sections 617 and 618; and
(B) the impact of such authorities on the ability of USAID
to work with local partners; and
(5) an assessment of--
(A) the number of organizations with a NICRA known to USAID
that are utilizing provisional NICRAs for longer than 4 years
without a final NICRA; and
(B) the steps that USAID recommends be taken to reduce the
extension of provisional NICRAs beyond 1 year.
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