I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2139 

To direct the President to develop and implement a comprehensive national 

strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting 

global development, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 28, 2009 

Mr. BERMAN (for himself and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To direct the President to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy to further the United States 

foreign policy objective of promoting global development, 

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 ‘‘Initiating Foreign As5 sistance Reform Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find8 ings: 

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1 (1) Poverty, lack of opportunity, gender in2 equality and other violations of human rights, and 

3 environmental degradation are recognized as signifi4 cant contributors to socioeconomic and political in5 stability, as well as to the exacerbation of disease 

6 pandemics and other global health threats. 

7 (2) The 2002 National Security Strategy of the 

8 United States notes: ‘‘[A] world where some live in 

9 comfort and plenty, while half of the human race 

10 lives on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor sta11 ble. Including all of the world’s poor in an expanding 

12 circle of development and opportunity is a moral im13 perative and one of the top priorities of United 

14 States international policy.’’. 

15 (3) The 2006 National Security Strategy of the 

16 United States notes: ‘‘America’s national interests 

17 and moral values drive us in the same direction: to 

18 assist the world’s poor citizens and least developed 

19 nations and help integrate them into the global econ20 omy.’’. 

21 (4) Poverty reduction is in the United States 

22 national security interest, in that it improves United 

23 States security by mitigating the underlying causes 

24 of violence and extremism, addresses threats like cli25 mate change and disease that know no borders, exWWOODS2 on PRODPC68 with BILLS

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1 pands economic opportunities for United States pro2 ducers and consumers, shows the best face of the 

3 United States to the world, and represents the val4 ues, kindness, and generosity of the American peo5 ple. 

6 (5) Elevating the United States’ standing in the 

7 world represents a critical and essential element of 

8 any strategy to improve national and global security 

9 by mitigating the root causes of conflict and multi10 national terrorism, strengthening diplomatic and 

11 economic relationships, preventing global climate 

12 change, curbing weapons proliferation, and fostering 

13 peace and cooperation among all nations. 

14 (6) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stat15 ed that ‘‘robust diplomacy and effective development 

16 are the best long-term tools for securing America’s 

17 future’’. 

18 (7) A National Strategy for Global Develop19 ment, as required under subsection (b), would bring 

20 such departments, agencies, and offices together to 

21 develop a comprehensive strategy laying out the 

22 principal objectives, approaches, and basic frame23 work for global development policies and programs— 

24 bilateral and multilateral—as part of broader poli25 cies of the United States for engaging in the world. 

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1 (b) STRATEGY REQUIRED.—The President shall de2 velop and implement, on an interagency basis, a com3 prehensive national strategy to further the United States 

4 foreign policy objective of reducing poverty and contrib5 uting to broad-based economic growth in developing coun6 tries, including responding to humanitarian crises. The 

7 strategy required under this subsection shall be known as 

8 the ‘‘National Strategy for Global Development’’. 

9 (c) ELEMENTS OF STRATEGY.—The strategy re10 quired under subsection (b) shall support United States 

11 engagement with developing countries in order to reduce 

12 poverty and contribute to broad-based economic growth in 

13 developing countries and therefore further the achieve14 ment of United States long-term foreign policy and na15 tional security interests. The strategy shall further— 

16 (1) define the role of United States Government 

17 departments and agencies in carrying out global de18 velopment policies and programs, such as trade poli19 cies, debt relief, climate change, and other polices 

20 and programs to reduce poverty and contribute to 

21 broad-based economic growth in developing coun22 tries, and create a process to enhance the inter23 agency coordination among such departments and 

24 agencies to ensure policy and program coherence 

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1 and avoid duplication and counterproductive out2 comes among such policies and programs; 

3 (2) establish development objectives for global 

4 development policies and programs described in 

5 paragraph (1) to reduce poverty and contribute to 

6 broad-based economic growth in developing countries 

7 consistent with internationally recognized develop8 ment goals and host country priorities, including 

9 cross-cutting principles and best practices to ensure 

10 that efforts are as effective as possible; 

11 (3) review and improve coordination among 

12 United States Government departments and agen13 cies carrying out global development policies and 

14 programs described in paragraph (1) and other 

15 countries and organizations, including multilateral, 

16 bilateral, and international organizations, host coun17 try governments, and civil society organizations, car18 rying out similar policies and programs to reduce 

19 poverty and contribute to broad-based economic 

20 growth; 

21 (4) address the continuum of activities relating 

22 to poverty reduction in developing countries, includ23 ing activities to address humanitarian needs through 

24 urgent humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation, 

25 reconstruction, and long-term development; 

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1 (5) establish development goals for each geo2 graphic region of the world based on the specific 

3 needs of each such region; and 

4 (6) include budget requirements to carry out 

5 the strategy. 

6 (d) CHARACTER OF STRATEGY.—In developing the 

7 strategy required under subsection (b), the President 

8 should, to the maximum extent practicable, ensure that 

9 the strategy is flexible so as to respond to changing objec10 tives, approaches, and needs of developing countries and 

11 changing United States foreign policy and national secu12 rity interests. 

13 (e) CONSULTATION.—In developing and imple14 menting the strategy required under subsection (b), the 

15 President should consult with the Committee on Foreign 

16 Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Com17 mittee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, nongovern18 mental stakeholders, international financial institutions, 

19 other international organizations involved in humanitarian 

20 assistance and development efforts, and developing coun21 tries. 

22 (f) TRANSMISSION TO CONGRESS.— 

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

24 the date of the enactment of this Act, the President 

25 shall transmit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

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1 of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

2 on Foreign Relations of the Senate a copy of the 

3 strategy required under subsection (b). The strategy 

4 shall be transmitted in unclassified form, but may 

5 contain a classified annex if necessary. 

6 (2) AVAILABILITY TO PUBLIC.—Upon trans7 mission of the strategy to Congress under paragraph 

8 (1), the President shall publish the strategy (other 

9 than the classified annex, if any) on the White 

10 House website. 

11 SEC. 3. MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF UNITED STATES 

12 FOREIGN ASSISTANCE. 

13 Chapter 1 of part III of the Foreign Assistance Act 

14 of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2351 et seq.) is amended by inserting 

15 after section 608 the following new section: 

16 ‘‘SEC. 609. MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF UNITED 

17 STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE. 

18 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall develop and 

19 implement a rigorous system to monitor and evaluate the 

20 effectiveness and efficiency of United States foreign assist21 ance. The system shall include a method of coordinating 

22 the evaluation activities of each Federal department or 

23 agency primarily responsible for carrying out United 

24 States foreign assistance programs with evaluation activi25 ties carried out by other such Federal departments and 

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1 agencies, and when possible with other international bilat2 eral and multilateral agencies and entities. 

3 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out subsection 

4 (a), the President shall ensure that the head of each Fed5 eral department or agency described in subsection (a)— 

6 ‘‘(1) establishes measurable performance goals, 

7 including gender-sensitive goals, for United States 

8 foreign assistance programs carried out by the Fed9 eral department or agency; 

10 ‘‘(2) establishes criteria for selection of such 

11 United States foreign assistance programs to be sub12 ject to various evaluation methodologies, with par13 ticular emphasis on criteria for selection of programs 

14 and projects to be subject to impact evaluation; 

15 ‘‘(3) establishes an organization unit with ade16 quate staff and funding to budget, plan, and conduct 

17 appropriate performance monitoring and improve18 ment and evaluation activities with respect to such 

19 United States foreign assistance programs; 

20 ‘‘(4) establishes a process for applying the les21 sons learned and results from evaluation activities, 

22 including the use and results of impact evaluation 

23 research, into future budgeting, planning, program24 ming, design and implementation of such United 

25 States foreign assistance programs; and 

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1 ‘‘(5) establishes a policy to publish all evalua2 tion plans and reports relating to such United States 

3 foreign assistance programs. 

4 ‘‘(c) ANNUAL EVALUATION PLAN.— 

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out subsection 

6 (a), the President shall ensure that the head of each 

7 Federal department or agency described in sub8 section (a) develops an annual evaluation plan of 

9 United States foreign assistance programs carried 

10 out by the department or agency stating how the de11 partment or agency will meet the requirements of 

12 this section. 

13 ‘‘(2) CONSULTATION.—In preparing the evalua14 tion plan, the head of each Federal department or 

15 agency described in subsection (a) shall consult with 

16 the heads of other appropriate Federal departments 

17 and agencies, governments of host countries, inter18 national and indigenous nongovernmental organiza19 tions, and other relevant stakeholders. 

20 ‘‘(3) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later 

21 than 180 days after the date of the enactment of 

22 this section, and annually thereafter, the head of 

23 each Federal department or agency described in sub24 section (a) shall submit to the appropriate congres25 sional committees and the United States foreign asWWOODS2 on PRODPC68 with BILLS

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1 sistance evaluation advisory council established 

2 under subsection (h) a copy of the evaluation plan. 

3 ‘‘(d) CAPACITY BUILDING.— 

4 ‘‘(1) FOR FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS AND AGEN5 CIES.—The President shall enhance the performance 

6 monitoring and improvement and evaluation capacity 

7 of each Federal department and agency described in 

8 subsection (a) by increasing and improving training 

9 and education opportunities, including adopting best 

10 practices and up-to-date evaluation methodologies to 

11 provide the best evidence available for assessing the 

12 results of United States foreign assistance programs. 

13 ‘‘(2) FOR RECIPIENT COUNTRIES.—The Presi14 dent is authorized to provide assistance to increase 

15 the capacity of the governments of countries receiv16 ing United States foreign assistance to design and 

17 conduct performance monitoring and improvement 

18 and evaluation activities. 

19 ‘‘(e) BUDGETARY PLANNING.—The head of each 

20 Federal department or agency described in subsection (a) 

21 shall include in the annual budget of the department or 

22 agency a funding amount to conduct performance moni23 toring and improvement and evaluations of United States 

24 foreign assistance programs, projects, or activities. 

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1 ‘‘(f) UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE EVAL2 UATION ADVISORY COUNCIL.— 

3 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall estab4 lish a United States foreign assistance evaluation 

5 advisory council to— 

6 ‘‘(A) provide guidance on the conduct of 

7 evaluations for United States foreign assistance 

8 programs, projects, and activities; 

9 ‘‘(B) facilitate publication of common indi10 cators to be used for measuring the outcomes 

11 and impacts of United States foreign assist12 ance; 

13 ‘‘(C) facilitate publication of best practices 

14 reports for different types of United States for15 eign assistance; and 

16 ‘‘(D) provide advice in the planning and 

17 coordination of United States foreign assistance 

18 evaluation to avoid duplication of efforts. 

19 ‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The advisory council shall 

20 be composed of not less than 7 members appointed 

21 by the President from among private individuals who 

22 are familiar and experienced in monitoring and eval23 uating foreign assistance programs, with at least 2 

24 members having specialized expertise in outcome and 

25 impact evaluation methodologies. 

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1 ‘‘(3) CHAIRPERSON.—The chairperson of the 

2 advisory council shall be designated by the President 

3 at the time of appointment. 

4 ‘‘(4) TERM.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each member shall be 

6 appointed for a term of 4 years, except as pro7 vided in subparagraph (B). 

8 ‘‘(B) VACANCIES.—Any member appointed 

9 to fill a vacancy occurring prior to the expira10 tion of the term for which the member’s prede11 cessor was appointed shall be appointed for the 

12 remainder of that term and may be appointed 

13 for an additional term of 4 years. 

14 ‘‘(5) MEETINGS.—The advisory council shall 

15 meet not less than four times each year. The chair16 person of the advisory council shall call a meeting of 

17 the advisory council upon request by four or more 

18 members of the advisory council. The meetings of 

19 the advisory council shall be made open to the public 

20 and minutes, comments, reports and other related 

21 documents shall be published in the Federal Register 

22 in a timely fashion. 

23 ‘‘(6) TERMINATION.—Section 14(a)(2) of the 

24 Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.; reWWOODS2 on PRODPC68 with BILLS

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1 lating to the termination of advisory committees) 

2 shall not apply to the advisory council. 

3 ‘‘(7) REPORT.—Not later than two years after 

4 the date of the enactment of this section, and every 

5 two years thereafter, the advisory council shall pre6 pare and submit to the President and the appro7 priate congressional committees a report that sum8 marizes the activities of the advisory council, includ9 ing the advisory council’s assessment of the perform10 ance monitoring and improvement and evaluation 

11 programs of each Federal department or agency de12 scribed in subsection (a). 

13 ‘‘(g) REPORT.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year 

15 after the date of the enactment of this section, and 

16 annually thereafter, the President shall transmit to 

17 the appropriate congressional committees a report 

18 on— 

19 ‘‘(A) the use of funds to carry out evalua20 tions under this section; 

21 ‘‘(B) the status and results of evaluations 

22 under this section; and 

23 ‘‘(C) the use of results and lessons learned 

24 from evaluations under this section, including 

25 actions taken in response to recommendations 

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1 included in current and previous evaluations, 

2 such as the improvement or continuation of a 

3 program, project, or activity. 

4 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION.—The report shall also be 

5 published in the Federal Register and made avail6 able on the public website of each Federal depart7 ment or agency described in subsection (a). 

8 ‘‘(h) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

9 ‘‘(1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT10 TEES.—The term ‘appropriate congressional com11 mittees’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

12 the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

13 Foreign Relations of the Senate. 

14 ‘‘(2) EVALUATION; OUTCOME AND IMPACT

15 EVALUATION.— 

16 ‘‘(A) EVALUATION.—The term ‘evaluation’ 

17 means the systematic and objective determina18 tion and assessment of the design, implementa19 tion, and results of an on-going or completed 

20 program, project, or activity. 

21 ‘‘(B) OUTCOME AND IMPACT EVALUA22 TION.—The term ‘outcome and impact evalua23 tion’ means an assessment of the impact and 

24 outcome of the outputs of a program, project, 

25 or activity. 

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1 ‘‘(3) IMPACT EVALUATION RESEARCH.—The 

2 term ‘impact evaluation research’ means the applica3 tion of research methods and statistical analysis to 

4 measure the extent to which change in a population5 based outcome or impact can be attributed to United 

6 States program, project, or activity intervention in7 stead of other environmental factors, including 

8 change in political climate and other donor assist9 ance. 

10 ‘‘(4) IMPACTS.—The term ‘impacts’ means the 

11 positive and negative, direct and indirect, intended 

12 and unintended long-term effects produced by a pro13 gram, project, or activity. 

14 ‘‘(5) OUTCOMES.—The term ‘outcomes’ means 

15 the likely or achieved immediate and intermediate ef16 fects of the outputs of a program, project, or activ17 ity. 

18 ‘‘(6) OUTPUTS.—The term ‘outputs’ means— 

19 ‘‘(A) the products, capital, goods, and serv20 ices that result from a program, project, or ac21 tivity; or 

22 ‘‘(B) the changes resulting from the pro23 gram, project, or activity that are relevant to 

24 the achievement of outcomes. 

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1 ‘‘(7) RESULTS.—The term ‘results’ means the 

2 positive or negative, direct or indirect, intended or 

3 unintended outputs, outcomes, and impacts of a pro4 gram, project, or activity. 

5 ‘‘(8) PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND IM6 PROVEMENT.—The term ‘performance monitoring 

7 and improvement’ means a continuous process of 

8 collecting, analyzing, and using data to compare how 

9 well a program, project, or activity is being imple10 mented against expected results and program costs 

11 and to make appropriate improvements accordingly. 

12 ‘‘(9) UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE.— 

13 The term ‘United States foreign assistance’ means— 

14 ‘‘(A) assistance authorized under this Act; 

15 and 

16 ‘‘(B) assistance authorized under any other 

17 provision of law that is classified under budget 

18 function 150 (International Affairs). 

19 ‘‘(i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Of the amounts authorized 

21 to be appropriated for each United States foreign 

22 assistance program for each of the fiscal years 2010 

23 and 2011, not less than 5 percent of such amounts 

24 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this 

25 section for such fiscal year. 

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1 ‘‘(2) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts authorized to be 

2 appropriated to carry out this section for a fiscal 

3 year are in addition to amounts otherwise available 

4 for such purposes.’’. 

5 SEC. 4. TRANSPARENCY OF UNITED STATES FOREIGN AS6 SISTANCE. 

7 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con8 gress that the American taxpayers and recipients of 

9 United States foreign assistance should, to the maximum 

10 extent practicable, have full access to information on 

11 United States foreign assistance. 

12 (b) INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO PUBLIC.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall publish 

14 in the Federal Register and make publicly available 

15 on the websites of appropriate Federal departments 

16 and agencies comprehensive, timely, comparable, and 

17 accessible information on United States foreign as18 sistance a detailed program-by-program basis and 

19 country-by-country basis. 

20 (2) SCOPE.—To ensure transparency, account21 ability, and effectiveness of United States foreign as22 sistance, the information on United States foreign 

23 assistance published and made available under para24 graph (1) shall include planning, allocations and dis25 bursement, terms, contracting, monitoring, and evalWWOODS2 on PRODPC68 with BILLS

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1 uation elements with respect to activities carried out 

2 under such United States foreign assistance. 

3 (3) AVAILABILITY TO BE IN TIMELY MANNER.— 

4 The President shall direct the head of each Federal 

5 department and agency providing United States for6 eign assistance to ensure that the information re7 quired under this subsection shall be made available 

8 in a timely manner. 

9 (c) MULTILATERAL EFFORTS.—In order to best as10 sess the use and impact of United States foreign assist11 ance in relation to funding provided by other donor na12 tions and recipient countries, the President should fully 

13 engage with and participate in the International Aid 

14 Transparency Initiative, established on September 4, 

15 2008, at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effective16 ness. 

17 (d) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘United 

18 States foreign assistance’’ has the meaning given the term 

19 in section 609(h) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 

20 (as added by section 3 of this Act). 

21 SEC. 5. REPEALS OF OBSOLETE AUTHORIZATIONS OF AS22 SISTANCE; CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 

23 (a) REPEALS.—The following provisions of the For24 eign Assistance Act of 1961 are hereby repealed: 

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1 (1) Section 125 (22 U.S.C. 2151w; relating to 

2 general development assistance). 

3 (2) Section 219 (22 U.S.C. 2179; relating to 

4 prototype desalting plant). 

5 (3) Title V of chapter 2 of part I (22 U.S.C. 

6 2201; relating to disadvantaged children in Asia). 

7 (4) Section 466 (22 U.S.C. 2286; relating to 

8 debt-for-nature exchanges pilot program for sub-Sa9 haran Africa). 

10 (5) Sections 494, 495, and 495B through 495K 

11 (22 U.S.C. 2292c, 2292f, and 2292h through 

12 2292q; relating to certain international disaster as13 sistance authorities). 

14 (6) Section 546 (22 U.S.C. 2347c; relating to 

15 certain international military education and training 

16 authorities). 

17 (7) Section 638(b) (22 U.S.C. 2398(b); relating 

18 to exclusions). 

19 (8) Section 648 (22 U.S.C. 2407; relating to 

20 certain miscellaneous provisions). 

21 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—(1) Section 135 of 

22 the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2152h) 

23 is amended by striking ‘‘section 135’’ and inserting ‘‘sec24 tion 136.’’ 

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1 (2) Section 638 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 

2 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2398) is amended by striking ‘‘(a) No 

3 provision’’ and inserting ‘‘No provision’’. 

Æ 

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