II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3994 

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

response and expanded engagement with local partners and to increase 

its local partner base. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 20, 2024 

Mr. COONS (for himself, Ms. ERNST, Mr. KAINE, and Mr. RICKETTS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

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 expanded engagement with local partners and to 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 USAID to 

3 pursue a model of locally led development and humani4 tarian response and expanded engagement and partner5 ship with local entities. 

6 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 It is the sense of Congress that— 

8 (1) locally led development and humanitarian 

9 response— 

10 (A) is more equitable and inclusive; 

11 (B) is linked to more efficient and sustain12 able development and humanitarian outcomes; 

13 and 

14 (C) is vital to building long-term self-reli15 ance; 

16 (2) over multiple presidential administrations, 

17 USAID has sought to achieve greater development 

18 outcomes through stronger local partnerships, in19 cluding through ‘‘Country Ownership’’, ‘‘The Jour20 ney to Self-Reliance’’, and ‘‘Locally Led Develop21 ment’’; 

22 (3) USAID should increase direct funding to 

23 local entities, including by increasing the amount of 

24 development and humanitarian assistance to such 

25 entities; 


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1 (4) USAID should ensure its programming en2 ables local communities to exercise leadership over 

3 priorities, project design, implementation, and meas4 uring and evaluating results of such programs; 

5 (5) working with local partners often requires 

6 more time and resources than traditional partners, 

7 including extended availability of funds and addi8 tional staff resources; and 

9 (6) increased flexibility is critical to enable 

10 USAID to respond to local priorities and leverage 

11 local capacities, including with respect to staffing, 

12 availability of funds, program design, and acquisi13 tion and assistance processes. 

14 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

15 In this Act: 

16 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT17 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com18 mittees’’ means— 

19 (A) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 

20 the Senate; 

21 (B) the Committee on Appropriations of 

22 the Senate; 

23 (C) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 

24 the House of Representatives; and 


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1 (D) the Committee on Appropriations of 

2 the House of Representatives. 

3 (2) NICRA.—The term ‘‘NICRA’’ means Nego4 tiated Indirect Cost Rate. 

5 (3) USAID.—The term ‘‘USAID’’ means the 

6 United States Agency for International Develop7 ment. 

8 SEC. 5. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS. 

9 The Administrator of USAID should, to the extent 

10 feasible and appropriate, localize the USAID partner base 

11 by— 

12 (1) simplifying and increasing access to USAID 

13 resources for local partners in humanitarian and de14 velopment sectors, including local partners who have 

15 relations, agency, or power structures in place that 

16 produced, or can produce, strong trust, account17 ability, and legitimacy in the communities or net18 works in which such partners work; 

19 (2) diversifying award types to streamline per20 formance requirements and working with the Office 

21 of Management and Budget to address threshold 

22 constraints, such as fixed amount subaward thresh23 olds, category management award targets, and other 

24 thresholds, policies, and contracting incentives that 


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1 pose a barrier to effectively supporting local part2 ners; 

3 (3) streamlining monitoring and evaluation, 

4 periodic reporting, and other USAID reporting re5 quirements; 

6 (4) ensuring USAID staff are able and encour7 aged to conduct regular consultation with local part8 ners in local languages of the host countries, making 

9 available solicitations for acquisitions and assistance 

10 and accepting submissions in local languages, video 

11 format, or verbal presentations, including by— 

12 (A) investing in translation services; 

13 (B) hosting workshop-based engagements; 

14 and 

15 (C) advertising solicitations in local trade 

16 publications, local media including newspapers 

17 and radio, local community centers, and local 

18 online forums; 

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

20 tiered, and milestone-based funding for new pro21 grams and to bring successful programs to scale; 

22 (6) strengthening the capacity of USAID staff 

23 and local partners to undertake risk management 

24 and mitigation; 


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1 (7) supporting consistent and unimpeded access 

2 to full cost recovery for local partners implementing 

3 activities funded by USAID; 

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 such definitions, as necessary; 

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

10 raise awareness about opportunities and the process 

11 for applying for and managing awards in compliance 

12 with applicable Federal regulations and USAID poli13 cies, and ensuring such engagement is accessible to 

14 all entities, including unregistered and informal or15 ganizations; 

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 NICRAs, in accordance with sec9 tion 200.414(g) of title 2, Code of Federal Regula10 tions; 

11 (14) conducting NICRA seminars in local lan12 guages and providing NICRA documentation in local 

13 languages; and 

14 (15) ensuring that contracting officers and 

15 agreement officers communicate to awardees who do 

16 not submit for a NICRA that they are eligible for 

17 the de minimis indirect cost rate. 

18 SEC. 6. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS. 

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 taken pursuant to section 5, 

23 to the extent appropriate and feasible, within all relevant 

24 USAID internal rules and regulations, including— 

25 (1) the Automated Directive System; 


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1 (2) the Acquisition and Assistance Strategy; 

2 (3) the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy; 

3 (4) the Localization of Humanitarian Assist4 ance Strategy; 

5 (5) the USAID Acquisition Regulation; 

6 (6) the Local Systems Framework; and 

7 (7) the Private Sector Engagement Policy. 

8 SEC. 7. AUTHORITY TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS, PRO9 POSALS, AND CONTRACTING AGREEMENTS IN 

10 LOCAL LANGUAGES AND LOCAL LANGUAGE 

11 SUPPORT. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi13 sion of law, USAID is authorized to accept applications 

14 or proposals in languages other than English if— 

15 (1) such acceptance eases the burden of a local 

16 entity working with USAID; and 

17 (2) USAID staff are able to effectively evaluate 

18 such applications or proposals. 

19 (b) LOCAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of 

21 USAID shall conduct an assessment of options to 

22 enable USAID to utilize local languages to support 

23 local partners with award solicitations, proposals and 

24 applications, evaluations, management, and close 

25 out, including advising local partners on applicable 


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1 United States regulations and USAID policies and 

2 local country rules and regulations common in such 

3 activities. 

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

5 date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator 

6 of USAID shall submit a report to Congress con7 taining the results of the assessment conducted pur8 suant to paragraph (1). 

9 SEC. 8. MODIFICATIONS RELATING TO THE CODE OF FED10 ERAL REGULATIONS AND OTHER REQUIRE11 MENTS. 

12 (a) INCREASE IN THE DE MINIMIS INDIRECT

13 COST.—The Administrator of USAID is authorized— 

14 (1) to increase the de minimis indirect cost rate 

15 provided for in section 200.414 of title 2, Code of 

16 Federal Regulations, or in any successor regulations, 

17 to 15 percent for local entities receiving USAID as18 sistance awards; 

19 (2) to establish a similar de minimis indirect 

20 cost rate of 15 percent for acquisitions awarded to 

21 local entities pursuant to title 48, Code of Federal 

22 Regulations; and 

23 (3) to further increase such threshold if such 

24 action is recommended by regulations promulgated 

25 by the Office of Management and Budget. 


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1 (b) EXEMPTION FOR LOCAL ENTITIES.—The Admin2 istrator of USAID is authorized to exempt local entities, 

3 as needed, from the reporting requirements under the 

4 Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 

5 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6106 note; Public Law 109–282) to allow 

6 for a 180-day delay in obtaining a unique entity identifier 

7 and registration in the System for Award Management if 

8 such exemption is not granted later than 30 days before 

9 the end of the award’s period of performance. 

10 (c) LOCAL COMPETITION AUTHORITY.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

12 provision of law, the Administrator of USAID, or a 

13 designee of the Administrator, may award contracts 

14 and other acquisition instruments in which competi15 tion is limited to local entities if such process 

16 would— 

17 (A) result in cost savings; 

18 (B) strengthen local capacity; or 

19 (C) enable USAID to deliver a program or 

20 activities more sustainably or quickly than if 

21 competition were not so limited. 

22 (2) LIMITATION.—The authority granted under 

23 paragraph (1) may not be used— 

24 (A) to make acquisition awards in excess 

25 of $25,000,000; or 


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1 (B) with respect to more than 10 percent 

2 of the amounts appropriated to USAID in any 

3 fiscal year. 

4 (d) USE OF NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL GEN5 ERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES.—The Ad6 ministrator of USAID, in consultation with the Adminis7 trator of the General Services Administration, the Sec8 retary of Defense, and the Administrator of the National 

9 Aeronautics and Space Administration, may permit for10 eign entities to use national or international generally ac11 cepted accounting principles instead of United States Gen12 erally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for con13 tracts or grants awarded under chapter 7 of title 2, Code 

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

15 Federal Regulations. 

16 SEC. 9. ANNUAL REPORT. 

17 Not later than 180 days after the last day of each 

18 fiscal year, and annually thereafter, the Administrator of 

19 USAID shall submit to the appropriate congressional com20 mittees and publish on the USAID website a report on 

21 the progress made by USAID during the most recently 

22 completed fiscal year to advance locally led development 

23 and humanitarian response, which shall include, with re24 spect to the reporting period— 


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1 (1) the amount of funding expended directly or 

2 indirectly by local entities, including through all de3 velopment and humanitarian assistance programs; 

4 (2) an assessment of how USAID is enabling 

5 more local leadership of programs funded by 

6 USAID, including— 

7 (A) recipients of direct funding; 

8 (B) subrecipients and subcontractors to an 

9 international implementing partner; 

10 (C) participants in a USAID-funded pro11 gram; and 

12 (D) members of a community affected by 

13 a USAID program; 

14 (3) an assessment of progress made by USAID 

15 towards implementing— 

16 (A) the Acquisitions and Assistance Strat17 egy; 

18 (B) the Local Capacity Strengthening Pol19 icy; 

20 (C) the Policy on Locally Led Humani21 tarian Assistance; and 

22 (D) any other relevant strategies and poli23 cies; 

24 (4) an assessment of— 


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1 (A) how USAID is using the new authori2 ties granted under sections 7 and 8; and 

3 (B) the impact of such authorities on the 

4 ability of USAID to work with local partners; 

5 and 

6 (5) an assessment of— 

7 (A) the number of organizations with a 

8 NICRA known to USAID that are utilizing pro9 visional NICRAs for longer than 4 years with10 out a final NICRA; and 

11 (B) the steps that USAID recommends be 

12 taken to reduce the extension of provisional 

13 NICRAs beyond 1 year. 

Æ 


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