II 

Calendar No. 318 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3766 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 9, 2015 

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar 

AN ACT 

To direct the President to establish guidelines for United 

States foreign development and economic assistance programs, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Aid Trans5 parency and Accountability Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVEL7 OPMENT AND ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE PRO8 GRAMS. 

9 (a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to 

10 evaluate the performance of United States foreign developVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:26 Dec 09, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3766.PCS H3766

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1 ment and economic assistance and its contribution to the 

2 policies, strategies, projects, program goals, and priorities 

3 undertaken by the Federal Government, to foster and pro4 mote innovative programs to improve effectiveness, and to 

5 coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes of 

6 Federal departments and agencies that administer United 

7 States foreign development and economic assistance. 

8 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF GUIDELINES.—Not later 

9 than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this 

10 Act, the President shall set forth guidelines for the estab11 lishment of measurable goals, performance metrics, and 

12 monitoring and evaluation plans that can be applied with 

13 reasonable consistency to United States foreign develop14 ment and economic assistance. Such guidelines shall be 

15 established according to best practices of monitoring and 

16 evaluation studies and analyses. 

17 (c) OBJECTIVES OF GUIDELINES.— 

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—The guidelines established 

19 under subsection (b) shall provide direction to Fed20 eral departments and agencies that administer 

21 United States foreign development and economic as22 sistance on monitoring the use of resources, evalu23 ating the outcomes and impacts of United States 

24 foreign development and economic assistance 

25 projects and programs, and applying the findings 


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1 and conclusions of such evaluations to proposed 

2 project and program design. 

3 (2) OBJECTIVES.—Specifically, the guidelines 

4 established under subsection (b) shall require Fed5 eral departments and agencies that administer 

6 United States foreign development and economic as7 sistance to take the following actions: 

8 (A) Establish annual monitoring and eval9 uation agendas and objectives to plan and man10 age the process of monitoring, evaluating, ana11 lyzing progress, and applying learning toward 

12 achieving results. 

13 (B) Develop specific project monitoring 

14 and evaluation plans, to include measurable 

15 goals and performance metrics, and identify the 

16 resources necessary to conduct such evalua17 tions, which should be covered by program 

18 costs, during project design. 

19 (C) Apply rigorous monitoring and evalua20 tion methodologies to such programs, including 

21 through the use of impact evaluations, ex-post 

22 evaluations, or other methods as appropriate, 

23 that clearly define program logic, inputs, out24 puts, intermediate outcomes, and end outcomes. 


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1 (D) Disseminate guidelines for the develop2 ment and implementation of monitoring and 

3 evaluation programs to all personnel, especially 

4 in the field, who are responsible for the design, 

5 implementation, and management of United 

6 States foreign development and economic assist7 ance programs. 

8 (E) Establish methodologies for the collec9 tion of data, including baseline data to serve as 

10 a reference point against which progress can be 

11 measured. 

12 (F) Evaluate at least once in their lifetime 

13 all programs whose dollar value equals or ex14 ceeds the median program size for the relevant 

15 office or bureau or an equivalent calculation to 

16 ensure the majority of program resources are 

17 evaluated. 

18 (G) Conduct impact evaluations on all pilot 

19 programs before replicating wherever possible, 

20 or provide a written justification for not con21 ducting an impact evaluation where such an 

22 evaluation was deemed inappropriate or impos23 sible. 

24 (H) Develop a clearinghouse capacity for 

25 the collection and dissemination of knowledge 


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1 and lessons learned that serve as benchmarks to 

2 guide future programs for United States devel3 opment professionals, implementing partners, 

4 the donor community, and aid recipient govern5 ments, and as a repository of knowledge on les6 sons learned. 

7 (I) Distribute evaluation reports internally. 

8 (J) Publicly report each evaluation, includ9 ing an executive summary, a description of the 

10 evaluation methodology, key findings, appro11 priate context (including quantitative and quali12 tative data when available), and recommenda13 tions made in the evaluation within 90 days 

14 after the completion of the evaluation. 

15 (K) Undertake collaborative partnerships 

16 and coordinate efforts with the academic com17 munity, implementing partners, and national 

18 and international institutions that have exper19 tise in program monitoring, evaluation, and 

20 analysis when such partnerships provide needed 

21 expertise or significantly improve the evaluation 

22 and analysis. 

23 (L) Ensure verifiable, valid, credible, pre24 cise, reliable, and timely data are available to 

25 monitoring and evaluation personnel to permit 


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1 the objective evaluation of the effectiveness of 

2 United States foreign development and eco3 nomic assistance programs, including an assess4 ment of assumptions and limitations in such 

5 evaluations. 

6 (M) Ensure that standards of professional 

7 evaluation organizations for monitoring and 

8 evaluation efforts are employed, including en9 suring the integrity and independence of evalua10 tions, permitting and encouraging the exercise 

11 of professional judgment, and providing for 

12 quality control and assurance in the monitoring 

13 and evaluation process. 

14 (d) PRESIDENTIAL REPORT.—Not later than 18 

15 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

16 President shall submit to the appropriate congressional 

17 committees a report that contains a detailed description 

18 of the guidelines established under subsection (b). The re19 port shall be submitted in unclassified form, but it may 

20 contain a classified annex. 

21 (e) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT.—The Comp22 troller General of the United States shall, not later than 

23 1 year after the report required by subsection (d) is sub24 mitted to Congress, submit to the appropriate congres25 sional committees a report that analyzes— 


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1 (1) the guidelines established pursuant to sub2 section (b); and 

3 (2) a side-by-side comparison of the President’s 

4 budget request for that fiscal year of every oper5 ational unit that carries out United States foreign 

6 development and economic assistance and the per7 formance of such units during the prior fiscal year. 

8 SEC. 3. INFORMATION ON UNITED STATES FOREIGN DE9 VELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE 

10 PROGRAMS. 

11 (a) PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION.— 

12 (1) UPDATE OF EXISTING WEB SITE.—Not 

13 later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 

14 of this Act, the Secretary of State shall update the 

15 Department of State’s Internet Web site, 

16 ‘‘ForeignAssistance.gov’’, to make publicly available 

17 comprehensive, timely, and comparable information 

18 on United States foreign development and economic 

19 assistance programs, including all information re20 quired pursuant to subsection (b) of this section that 

21 is then available to the Secretary of State. 

22 (2) INFORMATION SHARING.—The head of each 

23 Federal department or agency that administers 

24 United States foreign development and economic as25 sistance shall, not later than 2 years after the date 


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1 of the enactment of this Act, and on a quarterly 

2 basis thereafter, provide to the Secretary of State 

3 comprehensive information about the United States 

4 foreign development and economic assistance pro5 grams carried out by such department or agency. 

6 (3) UPDATES TO WEB SITE.—Not later than 2 

7 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

8 Secretary of State shall publish, through the 

9 ‘‘ForeignAssistance.gov’’ Web site or a successor on10 line publication, the information provided under sub11 section (b) of this section and shall update such in12 formation on a quarterly basis. 

13 (b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—The information described in 

15 subsection (a) shall be published on a detailed 

16 award-by-award and country-by-country basis unless 

17 assistance is provided on a regional level, in which 

18 case the information shall be published on an award19 by-award and region-by-region basis. 

20 (2) TYPES OF INFORMATION.— 

21 (A) IN GENERAL.—To ensure trans22 parency, accountability, and effectiveness of 

23 United States foreign development and eco24 nomic assistance programs, the information de25 scribed in subsection (a) shall include— 


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1 (i) links to all regional, country, and 

2 sector assistance strategies, annual budget 

3 documents, congressional budget justifica4 tions, evaluations and summaries of eval5 uations as required under section 

6 2(c)(2)(J); 

7 (ii) basic descriptive summaries for 

8 United States foreign development and 

9 economic assistance programs and awards 

10 under such programs; and 

11 (iii) obligations and expenditures 

12 under such programs. 

13 Each type of information described in this para14 graph shall be published or updated on the 

15 Internet Web site not later than 90 days after 

16 the date of issuance of the information. 

17 (B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 

18 subparagraph (A) shall be construed to require 

19 a Federal department or agency that admin20 isters United States foreign development and 

21 economic assistance to provide any information 

22 that does not relate to or is not otherwise re23 quired by the United States foreign develop24 ment and economic assistance programs carried 

25 out by such department or agency. 


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1 (3) REPORT IN LIEU OF INCLUSION.— 

2 (A) HEALTH OR SECURITY OF IMPLE3 MENTING PARTNERS.—If the head of a Federal 

4 department or agency, in consultation with the 

5 Secretary of State, makes a determination that 

6 the inclusion of a required item of information 

7 online would jeopardize the health or security of 

8 an implementing partner or program bene9 ficiary or would require the release of propri10 etary information of an implementing partner 

11 or program beneficiary, the head of the Federal 

12 department or agency shall provide such deter13 mination in writing to the appropriate congres14 sional committees, including the basis for such 

15 determination and shall— 

16 (i) provide a briefing to the appro17 priate congressional committees on such 

18 information; or 

19 (ii) submit to the appropriate congres20 sional committees such information in a 

21 written report. 

22 (B) NATIONAL INTERESTS OF THE UNITED

23 STATES.—If the Secretary of State makes a de24 termination that the inclusion of a required 

25 item of information online would be detrimental 


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1 to the national interests of the United States, 

2 the Secretary of State shall provide such deter3 mination in writing to the appropriate congres4 sional committees, including the basis for such 

5 determination and shall— 

6 (i) provide a briefing to the appro7 priate congressional committees on such 

8 information; or 

9 (ii) submit to the appropriate congres10 sional committees the item of information 

11 in a written report. 

12 (C) FORM.—Any briefing or item of infor13 mation provided under this paragraph may be 

14 provided in classified form, as appropriate. 

15 (4) FAILURE TO COMPLY.—If a Federal depart16 ment or agency fails to comply with the require17 ments of subsection (a), paragraph (1) or (2) of this 

18 subsection, or subsection (c) with respect to pro19 viding information described in subsection (a), and 

20 the information is not subject to a determination 

21 under subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (3) of 

22 this subsection not to make the information pub23 lically available, the Director of the Office of Man24 agement and Budget, in consultation with the head 

25 of such department or agency, shall submit to the 


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1 appropriate congressional committees not later than 

2 September 1, 2016, a consolidated report describing, 

3 with respect to each required item of information 

4 not made publicly available— 

5 (A) a detailed explanation of the reason for 

6 not making such information publicly available; 

7 and 

8 (B) the department’s or agency’s plan and 

9 timeline for immediately making such informa10 tion publicly available, and for ensuring that in11 formation is made publically available in fol12 lowing years. 

13 (c) SCOPE OF INFORMATION.—The online publication 

14 required by subsection (a) shall, at a minimum, provide 

15 the information required by subsection (b)— 

16 (1) in each fiscal year from 2016 through 2019, 

17 such information for fiscal years 2012 through the 

18 current fiscal year; and 

19 (2) for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year 

20 thereafter, such information for the immediately pre21 ceding 5 fiscal years in a fully searchable form. 

22 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

23 In this Act: 


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1 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT2 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com3 mittees’’ means— 

4 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

5 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

6 Senate; and 

7 (B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

8 the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

9 of Representatives. 

10 (2) EVALUATION.—The term ‘‘evaluation’’ 

11 means, with respect to a United States foreign de12 velopment and economic assistance program, the 

13 systematic collection and analysis of information 

14 about the characteristics and outcomes of the pro15 gram, including projects conducted under such pro16 gram, as a basis for making judgments and evalua17 tions regarding the program, to improve program ef18 fectiveness, and to inform decisions about current 

19 and future programming. 

20 (3) UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVELOPMENT

21 AND ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE.—The term ‘‘United 

22 States foreign development and economic assistance’’ 

23 means assistance provided primarily for the purposes 

24 of foreign development and economic support, in25 cluding assistance authorized under— 


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1 (A) part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 

2 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), other than— 

3 (i) title IV of chapter 2 of such part 

4 (relating to the Overseas Private Invest5 ment Corporation); 

6 (ii) chapter 3 of such part (relating to 

7 International Organizations and Pro8 grams); and 

9 (iii) chapter 8 of such part (relating 

10 to International Narcotics Control); 

11 (B) chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign As12 sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2346 et seq.; 

13 relating to Economic Support Fund); 

14 (C) the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 

15 (22 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.); and 

16 (D) the Food for Peace Act (7 U.S.C. 

17 1721 et seq.). 

Passed the House of Representatives December 8, 

2015. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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Calendar No. 318 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3766 

AN ACT 

To direct the President to establish guidelines for 

assistance programs, and for other purposes. United States foreign development and economic 

DECEMBER 9, 2015 

Received; read twice and placed on the calendar 


srobinson on DSK5SPTVN1PROD with BILLS