I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7710 

To authorize and encourage the United States Agency for International Development to pursue a model of locally led development and humanitarian 

response and expand engagement with local partners and increase its 

local partner base. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 19, 2024 

Ms. JACOBS (for herself and Mr. MILLS) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To authorize and encourage the United States Agency for 

International Development to pursue a model of locally 

led development and humanitarian response and expand 

engagement with local partners and increase its local 

partner base. 

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 ‘‘Locally Led Develop5 ment and Humanitarian Response Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 

2 The purpose of this Act is to encourage the United 

3 States Agency for International Development to pursue a 

4 model of locally led development and humanitarian re5 sponse and expand engagement and partnership with local 

6 entities. 

7 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

8 It is the sense of Congress that— 

9 (1) locally led development and humanitarian 

10 response is linked to more efficient and sustainable 

11 development and humanitarian outcomes, and is 

12 vital to building long-term self-reliance; 

13 (2) over multiple Administrations, USAID has 

14 sought to achieve greater development outcomes 

15 through stronger local partnerships, including 

16 through ‘‘Country Ownership’’, ‘‘The Journey to 

17 Self-Reliance’’, and ‘‘Locally Led Development’’; 

18 (3) USAID should increase direct funding to 

19 local entities, including by increasing the amount of 

20 development and humanitarian assistance to such 

21 entities; 

22 (4) USAID should ensure its programming en23 ables local communities to exercise leadership over 

24 priorities, project design, implementation, and meas25 uring and evaluating results of such programs; 


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1 (5) working with local partners often requires 

2 more time and resources than traditional partners, 

3 including extended availability of funds and addi4 tional staff resources; and 

5 (6) increased flexibility is critical to enable 

6 USAID to respond to local priorities and leverage 

7 local capacities, including with respect to staffing, 

8 availability of funds, program design, and acquisi9 tion and assistance processes, among other areas. 

10 SEC. 4. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—To the extent feasible and appro12 priate, the Administrator of USAID should localize 

13 USAID’s partner base by considering— 

14 (1) simplifying and increasing access to USAID 

15 resources for local partners in humanitarian and de16 velopment sectors, including local partners who have 

17 relations, agency, or power structures in place that 

18 have produced, or can produce, strong trust, ac19 countability, and legitimacy in the communities or 

20 networks such partners work in; 

21 (2) diversifying award types to streamline per22 formance requirements and working with the Office 

23 of Management and Budget to address threshold 

24 constraints such as fixed amount subaward thresh25 olds, category management award targets, and other 


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1 thresholds, policies, and contracting incentives that 

2 pose a barrier to effectively supporting local part3 ners; 

4 (3) streamlining monitoring and evaluation, 

5 periodic reporting, and other USAID reporting re6 quirements; 

7 (4) ensuring USAID staff is able and encour8 aged to conduct regular consultation with local part9 ners in local languages of the host countries, making 

10 available solicitations for acquisitions and assistance 

11 and accepting submissions in local languages, video 

12 format, or verbal presentations, including by— 

13 (A) investing in translation services; 

14 (B) hosting workshop-based engagements; 

15 and 

16 (C) advertising solicitations in local trade 

17 publications, local media including newspapers 

18 and radio, local community centers, and local 

19 online forums; 

20 (5) allowing and promoting multi-year, flexible, 

21 tiered and milestone-based funding for new pro22 grams and to bring successful programs to scale; 

23 (6) strengthening USAID staff and local part24 ners’ capacity to undertake risk management and 

25 mitigation; 


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1 (7) supporting consistent and unimpeded access 

2 to full cost recovery for local partners implementing 

3 USAID-funded activities; 

4 (8) assessing current definitions of ‘‘local part5 ner’’, ‘‘local ownership’’, and ‘‘localization’’ used by 

6 USAID for programming and reporting metrics, and 

7 updating the definitions, as necessary; 

8 (9) undertaking outreach campaigns and engag9 ing with local partners, formally and informally, to 

10 raise awareness about opportunities, as well as how 

11 to apply for and manage awards in compliance with 

12 applicable Federal regulations and USAID policies, 

13 and ensuring such engagement is accessible to all 

14 entities, including unregistered and informal organi15 zations; 

16 (10) strengthening oversight of capacity 

17 strengthening components of awards to ensure 

18 United States and international awardees are mak19 ing good-faith efforts to strengthen local organiza20 tions’ capacities, including independent and external 

21 evaluations to evaluate the mentorship process and 

22 regular feedback loops; 

23 (11) expeditiously solving the shortage of con24 tracting officers within USAID, including granting 


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1 warrants to qualified staff and providing appropriate 

2 training; 

3 (12) addressing performance evaluation criteria 

4 to create greater workforce incentives for USAID 

5 personnel to champion locally led development; 

6 (13) addressing internal delays and recipient 

7 organization issues that result in the required exten8 sion of provisional Negotiated Indirect Cost Rates 

9 (NICRAs); 

10 (14) conducting NICRA seminars in local lan11 guages and providing NICRA documentation in local 

12 languages; and 

13 (15) ensuring that contracting officers and 

14 agreement officers communicate to awardees who do 

15 not submit for a NICRA that they are eligible for 

16 the de minimis indirect cost rate. 

17 SEC. 5. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ACTIONS DESCRIBED IN 

18 SECTION 4. 

19 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact20 ment of this Act, the Administrator of USAID shall ini21 tiate policy actions, including rulemaking if necessary, to 

22 institutionalize the actions described in section 4 to the 

23 extent appropriate and feasible within all relevant USAID 

24 internal rules and regulations, including the Automated 

25 Directive System (ADS), the Acquisition and Assistance 


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1 Strategy, the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, the 

2 Localization of Humanitarian Assistance Strategy, the 

3 USAID Acquisition Regulation (AIDAR), the Local Sys4 tems Framework, and the Private Sector Engagement 

5 Policy. 

6 SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS, PRO7 POSALS, AND CONTRACTING AGREEMENTS IN 

8 LOCAL LANGUAGES AND LOCAL LANGUAGE 

9 SUPPORT. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi11 sion of law, USAID is authorized to accept applications 

12 or proposals in languages other than English if such ac13 ceptance eases the burden of a local entity working with 

14 USAID and USAID is able to effectively evaluate such 

15 applications or proposals. 

16 (b) LOCAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT.— 

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of 

18 USAID shall conduct an assessment of options to 

19 enable USAID to utilize local languages to support 

20 local partners with award solicitations, proposals and 

21 applications, evaluations, management, and close 

22 out, including advising local partners on applicable 

23 United States regulations and USAID policies and 

24 local country rules and regulations common in such 

25 activities. 


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1 (2) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 

2 date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

3 of USAID shall submit to Congress a report on the 

4 assessment described in this subsection. 

5 SEC. 7. MODIFICATIONS RELATING TO THE CODE OF FED6 ERAL REGULATIONS AND OTHER REQUIRE7 MENTS. 

8 (a) INCREASE IN THE DE MINIMIS INDIRECT

9 COST.—The Administrator of USAID is authorized to in10 crease the de minimis indirect cost rate provided for in 

11 section 200.414 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations, 

12 or any successor regulations, to 15 percent for local enti13 ties receiving USAID assistance awards and to establish 

14 a similar de minimis indirect cost rate of 15 percent for 

15 acquisitions awarded under title 48 of the Code of Federal 

16 Regulations to local entities, and to increase this threshold 

17 further should subsequent Office of Management and 

18 Budget regulations recommend doing so. 

19 (b) EXEMPTION FOR LOCAL ENTITIES.—The Admin20 istrator of USAID is authorized to exempt local entities, 

21 as needed, from the reporting requirements of the Federal 

22 Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 

23 (31 U.S.C. 6106 note; Public Law 109–282) to allow for 

24 a 180-day delay in obtaining a unique entity identifier and 

25 registration in the System for Award Management. This 


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1 delay shall be no later than 30 days prior to the end of 

2 the award’s period of performance. 

3 (c) LOCAL COMPETITION AUTHORITY.—Notwith4 standing any other provision of law, the Administrator of 

5 USAID (or the Administrator’s designees) may award 

6 contracts and other acquisition instruments in which com7 petition is limited to local entities if doing so would result 

8 in cost savings, strengthen local capacity, or enable 

9 USAID to deliver a programs or activities more 

10 sustainably or quickly than if competition were not so lim11 ited. Such authority may not be used to make acquisition 

12 awards in excess of $25,000,000 and shall not exceed 

13 more than 10 percent of the amounts appropriated to 

14 USAID each fiscal year. 

15 (d) USE OF NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL GEN16 ERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES.—The Ad17 ministrator of USAID, in consultation with the Adminis18 trator of the General Services Administration, the Sec19 retary of Defense, and the Administrator of the National 

20 Aeronautics and Space Administration, is authorized to 

21 allow foreign entities to use national or international gen22 erally accepted accounting principles instead of United 

23 States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) 

24 for contracts or grants awarded under the chapter 7 of 


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1 title 48, Code of Federal Regulations or chapter 7 of title 

2 2, Code of Federal Regulations. 

3 SEC. 8. ANNUAL REPORT. 

4 Not later than 180 days after the end of each fiscal 

5 year following the date of the enactment of this Act, and 

6 annually thereafter, the Administrator of USAID shall 

7 submit to the appropriate congressional committees and 

8 publish on USAID’s website a report on USAID’s 

9 progress to advance locally led development and humani10 tarian response, to include the following elements: 

11 (1) The amount of funding implemented di12 rectly and indirectly by local entities in the previous 

13 fiscal year, including all development and humani14 tarian assistance programs. 

15 (2) An assessment of how USAID is enabling 

16 more local leadership of USAID-funded programs, 

17 including recipients of direct funding, subrecipients 

18 and subcontractors to an international implementing 

19 partner, participants in a USAID program, or mem20 bers of a community affected by USAID program21 ming. 

22 (3) An assessment of progress implementing 

23 the Acquisitions and Assistance Strategy, including 

24 updated information on the ratio of the USAID Ac25 quisitions and Assistance workforce to award dollars 


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1 managed with comparison to other relevant agencies; 

2 the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy; the Policy 

3 on Locally Led Humanitarian Assistance; and any 

4 other relevant strategies and policies. 

5 (4) An assessment of how USAID is using new 

6 authorities granted in sections 6 and 7 and an as7 sessment of the impact of these authorities on 

8 USAID’s ability to work with local partners. 

9 (5) An assessment of how many organizations 

10 with a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (NICRA) cog11 nizant to USAID are utilizing provisional NICRAs 

12 for over 48 months without a final NICRA and steps 

13 that USAID can take to reduce the extension of pro14 visional NICRAs beyond 12 months. 

15 SEC. 9. REPORT ON CONTRACTING OFFICERS. 

16 Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this 

17 Act, the Administrator of USAID shall provide a report 

18 to the appropriate congressional committees on the re19 cruitment and retention of contracting officers and agree20 ment officers at USAID and recommendations to improve 

21 contracting/agreement officer recruitment and retention. 

22 SEC. 10. 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 Affairs and 

5 the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

6 of Representatives; and 

7 (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 

8 and the Committee on Appropriations of the 

9 Senate. 

10 (2) USAID.—The term ‘‘USAID’’ means the 

11 United States Agency for International Develop12 ment. 

Æ 


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