IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 24 

Establishing the House Democracy Assistance Commission for the One 

Hundred Tenth Congress. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 4, 2007 

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. DREIER, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. 

HOLT, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. 

REYES, Mr. FORTENBERRY, Mr. SNYDER, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. LANTOS, Ms. WATSON, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr. HONDA, Mr. 

SCHIFF, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. 

PAYNE, Mr. COLE of Oklahoma, Mr. HOYER, Mr. KIRK, Mr. POMEROY, 

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. BORDALLO, and Mr. DAVIS of Alabama) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Establishing the House Democracy Assistance Commission 

for the One Hundred Tenth Congress. 

1 Resolved, 

2 SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION. 

3 There is established in the House of Representatives 

4 a commission to be known as the House Democracy As5 sistance Commission (hereafter in this resolution referred 

6 to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 


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1 SEC. 2. MEMBERSHIP OF COMMISSION. 

2 (a) NUMBER AND APPOINTMENT.—The Commission 

3 shall be composed of 20 Members of the House of Rep4 resentatives, of whom 11 shall represent the majority 

5 party and be appointed by the Speaker of the House of 

6 Representatives and 9 shall represent the minority party 

7 and be appointed by the Minority Leader of the House 

8 of Representatives. 

9 (b) TERMS OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REP10 RESENTATIVES.—Each member of the Commission shall 

11 be appointed for a term that is concurrent with the Con12 gress in which the appointment is made. Such a member 

13 may be reappointed for one or more subsequent terms in 

14 accordance with the preceding sentence. 

15 (c) CHAIRPERSON.—The Chairperson of the Commis16 sion shall be designated by the Speaker of the House of 

17 Representatives from among the members appointed by 

18 the Speaker of the House of Representatives under sub19 section (a). 

20 SEC. 3. DUTIES. 

21 (a) ACTIVITIES.—The Commission shall work with 

22 the legislatures of partner countries, as determined pursu23 ant to subsections (b) and (c)(3), on a frequent and reg24 ular basis in order to— 

25 (1) enable Members, officers, and staff of the 

26 House of Representatives and congressional support 


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1 agencies to provide expert advice and consultation to 

2 members and staff of the legislatures of partner 

3 countries; 

4 (2) enable members and staff of legislatures of 

5 partner countries to study the operations of the 

6 House of Representatives and its support agencies; 

7 and 

8 (3) provide recommendations to the Adminis9 trator of the United States Agency for International 

10 Development regarding the provision of material as11 sistance, such as modern automation and office sys12 tems, information technology, and library supplies, 

13 as the Commission determines to be needed by a leg14 islature of a partner country in order to improve the 

15 efficiency and transparency of its work, and to over16 see the provision of such assistance. 

17 (b) SELECTION OF PARTNER LEGISLATURES.— 

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—In order to carry out the ac19 tivities described in subsection (a), the Commission 

20 may conduct, as needed, studies on the feasibility of 

21 programs of assistance for legislatures of countries 

22 described in paragraph (2) for the purpose of 

23 strengthening the legislative infrastructure of such 

24 countries. Such studies shall assess— 


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1 (A) the independent and substantive role 

2 that each legislature plays, or could reasonably 

3 be expected to play, in the legislative process 

4 and government oversight; 

5 (B) the potential benefit to each legislature 

6 of expert advice from and consultation with 

7 Members and staff of the House of Representa8 tives in areas such as the development of re9 search services and legislative information sys10 tems, legislative procedure, committee oper11 ations, budget process, government oversight, 

12 and constituent services; and 

13 (C) the need in each legislature for mate14 rial assistance, such as modern automation and 

15 office systems, information technology, and re16 search materials, in order to improve efficiency 

17 and transparency. 

18 (2) COUNTRIES DESCRIBED.—The countries re19 ferred to in paragraph (1) are countries that have 

20 established, have re-established, or are developing 

21 democratic legislatures which would benefit from the 

22 assistance described in this resolution. 

23 (3) ADDITIONAL PARTNER LEGISLATURES.— 

24 From any countries studied in accordance with para25 graph (1), the Commission may select one or more 


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1 legislatures to receive assistance under the provi2 sions of this resolution, subject to a written expres3 sion of interest from the highest ranking office with4 in the legislature of a selected country. 

5 (c) REPORTS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than December 31, 

7 2007, and each December 31 thereafter, the Com8 mission shall prepare and submit to the Speaker of 

9 the House of Representatives, the Minority Leader 

10 of the House of Representatives, appropriate House 

11 committees, the Office of Interparliamentary Affairs 

12 of the House of Representatives, and the Adminis13 trator of the United States Agency for International 

14 Development, an annual report on the Commission’s 

15 activities, including a review of the activities of the 

16 Commission in the current year and a proposal for 

17 the activities of the Commission in the upcoming 

18 year, as described in subsection (a). 

19 (2) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

20 ‘‘appropriate House committees’’ means the fol21 lowing committees of the House of Representatives: 

22 (A) The Committee on International Rela23 tions. 

24 (B) The Committee on Appropriations. 


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1 (C) The Committee on House Administra2 tion. 

3 (D) The Committee on Rules. 

4 SEC. 4. ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RE5 LATIONS. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall carry out 

7 the duties described in section 3 using the staff and re8 sources of the Committee on International Relations, in9 cluding the use of consultants or temporary employees, 

10 such as individuals with expertise in development of demo11 cratic parliaments, legislative systems management, legis12 lative research, parliamentary procedure, related legisla13 tive matters, and technology systems management, as ap14 propriate. 

15 (b) PARTICIPATION OF LEGISLATIVE BRANCH EM16 PLOYEES.—At the request of the Commission, the head 

17 of any office of the House of Representatives or any con18 gressional support agency may assist the work of the Com19 mission by— 

20 (1) detailing personnel to the staff of the Com21 mittee on International Relations or another stand22 ing committee of the House of Representatives; or 

23 (2) authorizing personnel to participate in ac24 tivities of the Commission. 


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1 SEC. 5. TRANSITION FROM FORMER COMMISSION. 

2 (a) CONTINUATION OF EXISTING PROGRAMS.—The 

3 Commission may continue programs of assistance with 

4 legislatures of partner countries which were initiated by 

5 the former Commission. 

6 (b) TRANSFER OF AUTHORITIES AND RESOURCES.— 

7 Any authorities and resources of the former Commission 

8 which remain available as of the day before the date of 

9 the adoption of this resolution, including unobligated 

10 funds, shall be transferred and made available to the Com11 mission. 

12 (c) DEFINITION.—In this section, the ‘‘former Com13 mission’’ means the House Democracy Assistance Com14 mission established under the House Democracy Assist15 ance Commission Resolution (House Resolution 135, One 

16 Hundred Ninth Congress, agreed to March 14, 2005). 

Æ 


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