II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1228 

To require a National Diplomacy and Development Strategy. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 24, 2017 

Mr. YOUNG (for himself and Mrs. SHAHEEN) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

A BILL 

To require a National Diplomacy and Development Strategy. 

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 ‘‘National Diplomacy 

5 and Development Strategy Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL DIPLOMACY AND DEVELOPMENT STRAT7 EGY. 

8 (a) STRATEGY REQUIRED.— 

9 (1) INITIAL STRATEGY.— 

10 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 

11 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 

12 Secretary of State, in coordination with the AdVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:44 Jun 01, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1228.IS S1228

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1 ministrator of the United States Agency for 

2 International Development and the heads of 

3 other relevant Federal departments and agen4 cies, shall submit to Congress a comprehensive 

5 report on the national diplomacy and develop6 ment strategy (NDDS) of the United States. 

7 (B) USE OF QDDR.—For the purposes of 

8 fulfilling the requirement under subparagraph 

9 (A), the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Develop10 ment Review of 2015 may be used to inform 

11 the development of the NDDS. 

12 (2) SUBSEQUENT STRATEGIES.—Beginning in 

13 the year after the initial NDDS report is submitted 

14 under paragraph (1), the Secretary of State, in con15 sultation with the Administrator of the United 

16 States Agency for International Development and 

17 the heads of other relevant Federal departments and 

18 agencies, shall submit an NDDS report— 

19 (A) in any year in which a new President 

20 is inaugurated, not later than October 1; and 

21 (B) in any other year, not later than 90 

22 days after the development of a new National 

23 Security Strategy Report. 

24 (b) CONTENT.—Each NDDS report required under 

25 subsection (a) shall set forth the national diplomacy and 


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1 development strategy of the United States and shall, at 

2 a minimum, include a comprehensive description and dis3 cussion of the following matters: 

4 (1) The leading worldwide interests and objec5 tives of the United States, categorized as vital, high6 ly important, or important, in accordance with cat7 egories defined by the Secretary in order to delineate 

8 a clear prioritization of the United States interests 

9 and objectives. 

10 (2) The leading threats, challenges, and oppor11 tunities associated with these interests and objec12 tives, including— 

13 (A) an assessment of the severity and like14 lihood of the threats, explicitly linking each 

15 threat to a vital, highly important, or important 

16 national interest or objective; 

17 (B) an assessment of the nature of the 

18 challenges and how each challenge will evolve if 

19 left unaddressed; and 

20 (C) an assessment of the opportunities and 

21 associated potential benefits to United States 

22 interests or objectives. 

23 (3) An overview of the diplomatic and develop24 ment tools and sources of leverage necessary to ad25 dress or minimize the leading threats and challenges 


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1 and to take advantage of the leading opportunities, 

2 including an assessment of whether the United 

3 States Government possesses those tools or sources 

4 of leverage and— 

5 (A) for each threat, challenge, or oppor6 tunity that the Secretary assesses the United 

7 States Government lacks sufficient tools or 

8 sources of leverage to address, minimize, or 

9 take advantage of, a detailed plan to develop or 

10 improve these tools and sources of leverage; and 

11 (B) an identification of key existing or 

12 needed military, economic, informational, or in13 telligence tools or sources of leverage outside 

14 the Department of State that are critical to the 

15 successful implementation of the NDDS. 

16 (4) A plan to utilize available diplomatic and 

17 development tools or sources of leverage to address 

18 or minimize the leading threats and challenges and 

19 to take advantage of the leading opportunities, in20 cluding— 

21 (A) a discussion of the optimal allocation 

22 of finite resources and identification of the risks 

23 associated with that allocation; 

24 (B) diplomatic and development regional 

25 bureau sub-plans, incorporating feedback from 


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1 the functional bureaus, that seek to promote 

2 the national interests and objectives in each re3 spective worldwide region, including a descrip4 tion of key priorities and tasks for United 

5 States missions within the region and how indi6 vidual missions will work together to support 

7 the regional and international plan; 

8 (C) a description of— 

9 (i) how the NDDS is integrated and 

10 coordinated with the current National De11 fense Strategy (as required by section 941 

12 of the National Defense Authorization Act 

13 for Fiscal Year 2017 (Public Law 114– 

14 328)); and 

15 (ii) how the NDDS supports the na16 tional security strategy (as described in 

17 section 108 of the National Security Act of 

18 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3043)); 

19 (D) an identification of relationships and 

20 contributions of other United States depart21 ments or agencies that are key to the fulfill22 ment of the plan; 

23 (E) an identification of the desired role of 

24 allied or partner nations and a diplomatic plan 


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1 to encourage their cooperation in executing the 

2 NDDS; and 

3 (F) an identification of the desired role of 

4 select international organizations, and a diplo5 matic plan to encourage their cooperation in 

6 executing the NDDS. 

7 (5) An identification of any additional resources 

8 or statutory authorizations necessary from Congress 

9 to implement the NDDS. 

10 (6) Such other information as may be necessary 

11 to help inform Congress on matters relating to the 

12 NDDS. 

13 (c) REPORT.—Each NDDS report required under 

14 this section shall be submitted to the appropriate congres15 sional committees in classified form with an unclassified 

16 summary. 

17 (d) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.— 

18 In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com19 mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

20 the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 

21 House of Representatives. 

Æ 


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