I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4452 

To require funds made available to each Federal department and agency 

for United States development or humanitarian assistance programs to 

be made available to foreign countries through the activities of United 

States organizations or businesses that are owned or controlled by naturalized United States citizens, or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent 

residence, who are from those foreign countries. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 20, 2004 

Mr. MEEKS of New York introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on International Relations 

A BILL 

To require funds made available to each Federal department 

and agency for United States development or humanitarian assistance programs to be made available to foreign countries through the activities of United States 

organizations or businesses that are owned or controlled 

by naturalized United States citizens, or aliens lawfully 

admitted for permanent residence, who are from those 

foreign countries. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 
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1 (1) American society has long been known for 

2 being a ‘‘melting pot’’, boasting citizens from all 

3 countries and continents across the world. 

4 (2) After reaching America’s shores, naturalized 

5 United States citizens and aliens lawfully admitted 

6 for permanent residence have taken advantage of 

7 educational and entrepreneurial opportunities there8 by allowing these individuals to contribute to the 

9 economic and cultural riches that define our great 

10 Nation. 

11 (3) Many of these new Americans still have 

12 connections to their countries of origin—forming 

13 community, educational, religious, and other organi14 zations in the United States that continue to tie 

15 them to their homelands. These new Americans send 

16 remittances that total more than $70,000,000,000 

17 per year to help loved ones abroad sustain dreams 

18 and build new ones. 

19 (4) At a time when the events of September 11, 

20 2001, have resulted in new and different security 

21 concerns for the United States, it is critical that 

22 every attempt be made to better understand those 

23 foreign countries that receive United States assist24 ance. 
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1 (5) Due to national security implications, the 

2 United States Government can no longer afford to 

3 conduct foreign policy without the benefit of engage4 ment of foreign countries, including on a cultural, 

5 social, technical, and economic basis. 

6 (6) Naturalized United States citizens and 

7 aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence 

8 should be encouraged to use the same skills that 

9 they have contributed to the development of the 

10 United States toward the development of their coun11 tries of origin in order to— 

12 (A) take part in introducing or enhancing 

13 democratic values abroad; 

14 (B) capitalize on America’s diversity to es15 tablish strong cross-border relationships that 

16 can create multilateral bonds for generations to 

17 come; 

18 (C) utilize multilingual and multicultural 

19 segments of American society to ease and re20 duce costs for project transitions in foreign 

21 countries; and 

22 (D) encourage long-term sustainable devel23 opment in foreign countries in which such de24 velopment has been difficult to obtain. 
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1 (7) Currently, projects under many foreign as2 sistance programs do not involve naturalized United 

3 States citizens or aliens lawfully admitted for perma4 nent residence who are from the recipient country in 

5 leadership roles in the planning, design, and imple6 mentation of the projects, and consequently— 

7 (A) project leaders often do not transfer 

8 critical skills to individuals in the recipient 

9 country, making it difficult for long term devel10 opment to take place; and 

11 (B) increased costs relating to cultural ad12 justment often occur that might not occur if in13 dividuals originally from the recipient country 

14 were involved in the projects. 

15 (8) Because many United States Government 

16 departments and agencies face management con17 straints that make it necessary to bundle projects 

18 and activities for foreign countries under ‘‘Mega’’ 

19 contracts and grants, it has become increasingly dif20 ficult for smaller United States organizations and 

21 businesses owned or controlled by naturalized United 

22 States citizens, or aliens lawfully admitted for per23 manent residence, who are from such foreign coun24 tries to compete to carry out those projects and ac25 tivities. 
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1 (9) To encourage the transference of skills, 

2 knowledge, and democratic values that will lead to 

3 long-term sustainable development and require fewer 

4 transition costs, special preferences should be given 

5 to naturalized United States citizens, or aliens law6 fully admitted for permanent residence, who are 

7 seeking United States foreign assistance funding for 

8 projects in their countries of origin. 

9 SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO PROVIDE DEVELOPMENT AND 

10 HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE FUNDS TO FOR11 EIGN COUNTRIES THROUGH UNITED STATES 

12 ENTITIES OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY INDI13 VIDUALS FROM THOSE FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 

14 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, up to 10 

15 percent of funds made available to each Federal depart16 ment and agency for any fiscal year (beginning with fiscal 

17 year 2005) to carry out United States development assist18 ance or humanitarian assistance programs shall be made 

19 available to foreign countries through the activities of 

20 United States organizations or businesses that are owned 

21 or controlled by naturalized United States citizens, or 

22 aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence, who are 

23 from such foreign countries. 
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1 SEC. 3. REPORT. 

2 Not later than January 1 of each year, the President 

3 shall prepare and transmit to the appropriate congres4 sional committees a report that contains a description of 

5 the implementation of section 3 for the preceding fiscal 

6 year. Each such report shall specify the number and dollar 

7 value or amount (as the case may be) of prime contracts, 

8 subcontracts, grants, and cooperative agreements awarded 

9 to organizations and individuals described in such section 

10 during the preceding fiscal year. 

11 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

12 In this Act: 

13 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT14 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com15 mittees’’ means the Committee on International Re16 lations of the House of Representatives and the 

17 Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. 

18 (2) UNITED STATES DEVELOPMENT ASSIST19 ANCE OR HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.— 

20 The term ‘‘United States development assistance or 

21 humanitarian assistance programs’’ means programs 

22 to provide development assistance or humanitarian 

23 assistance under major budget functional category 

24 150 (relating to International Affairs), including 

25 programs under— 
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1 (A) chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign As2 sistance Act of 1961 (relating to development 

3 assistance); 

4 (B) chapter 10 of part I of that Act (relat5 ing to the Development Fund for Africa); 

6 (C) chapter 11 of part I of that Act (relat7 ing to assistance for the independent states of 

8 the former Soviet Union); 

9 (D) chapter 12 of part I of that Act (relat10 ing to assistance for the countries of the South 

11 Caucasus and Central Asia region); 

12 (E) chapter 4 of part II of that Act (relat13 ing to the Economic Support Fund); or 

14 (F) the Support for East European De15 mocracy (SEED) Act of 1989. 

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