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97–463PDF 2015

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

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

DANIEL DONOVAN, New York 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

(III)

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

(1)

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. 

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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 

32

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, highimpact 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. 

33

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 speVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:04 Dec 03, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_FULL\110515M\97463 SHIRL
34

cialized 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 

35

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. 

36

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. 

37

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.] 

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STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY


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