I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 6196 
To authorize and encourage the United States to pursue a model of locally 
led development and humanitarian response and expand engagement with 
local actors and increase its local partner base. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 20, 2025 
Ms. JACOBS (for herself and Mrs. KIM) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To authorize and encourage the United States to pursue 
a model of locally led development and humanitarian 
response and expand engagement with local actors and 
increase its local partner base. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Locally Led Develop-
ment and Humanitarian Response Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to encourage the United 
States to pursue a model of locally led development and 
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humanitarian response and expand engagement and part-
nership with local actors. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) locally led development and humanitarian 
response is linked to more efficient and sustainable 
development and humanitarian outcomes, and is 
vital to building long-term self-reliance; 
(2) over multiple Administrations, the United 
States Government has sought to achieve greater de-
velopment outcomes through stronger local partner-
ships, including through ‘‘Country Ownership’’, 
‘‘The Journey to Self-Reliance’’, and ‘‘Locally Led 
Development’’; 
(3) the relevant foreign assistance agency 
should increase the proportion of direct funding to 
local entities, including by increasing the amount of 
development and humanitarian assistance to such 
entities; 
(4) the relevant foreign assistance agency 
should ensure its programming enables local commu-
nities to exercise leadership over priorities, project 
design, implementation, and measuring and evalu-
ating results of such programs; 
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(5) the relevant foreign assistance agency 
should ensure most awards, requests for proposals, 
and requests for applications outline expectations for 
implementers to elevate local leadership and hold im-
plementers to account for elevating local leadership; 
(6) working with local partners requires more 
time, staffing, and flexibility of resources than tradi-
tional partners, including extended availability of 
funds and additional staff resources; and 
(7) increased flexibility is critical to respond to 
local priorities and leverage local capacities, includ-
ing with respect to staffing, availability of funds, 
program design, and acquisition and assistance proc-
esses, among other areas. 
SEC. 4. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—To the extent feasible and appro-
priate, the head of the relevant foreign assistance agency 
should localize the development and humanitarian assist-
ance partner base by considering— 
(1) supporting and funding existing effective 
local projects and initiatives; 
(2) simplifying and increasing access to United 
States foreign assistance resources for local partners 
in humanitarian and development sectors, including 
local partners who have relations, agency, or power 
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structures in place that have produced, or can 
produce, strong trust, accountability, and legitimacy 
in the communities or networks such partners work 
in; 
(3) setting realistic goals and timelines for 
sunsetting assistance and adhering to existing agree-
ment totals and timelines to incentivize self-reliance 
and encourage exit plans with appropriate notice; 
(4) exploring offering matching grants and in- 
kind contributions to ensure that United States Gov-
ernment investments in local partners are helping 
generate new resources of their own from other do-
nors; 
(5) exploring government-to-government part-
nerships with adequate guardrails and oversight, in 
consultation with local civil society, with select coun-
tries where feasible and practical to enhance foreign 
governments’ ability to deliver good governance, 
service delivery, and public goods that benefit local 
communities; 
(6) exploring other types of funding modalities 
and types of partnerships with local and national ac-
tors, including support for pooled funding mecha-
nisms and unsolicited projects; 
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(7) diversifying award types to streamline per-
formance requirements and working with the Office 
of Management and Budget to address threshold 
constraints that pose a barrier to effectively sup-
porting local partners; 
(8) ensuring staff of the relevant foreign assist-
ance agency is able and encouraged to conduct reg-
ular consultation with local partners in local lan-
guages of the host countries relating to policies and 
programs, including making available solicitations 
for acquisitions and assistance and accepting sub-
missions in local languages, video format, or verbal 
presentations, including by— 
(A) investing in translation services; 
(B) hosting workshop-based engagements; 
and 
(C) advertising solicitations in local trade 
publications, local media including newspapers 
and radio, local community centers, and local 
online forums; 
(9) allowing and promoting multi-year, flexible, 
tiered and milestone-based funding for new pro-
grams and to bring successful programs to scale; 
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(10) utilizing ‘‘other transaction authority’’ 
through innovation incentive awards for local and 
national actors; 
(11) supporting consistent and unimpeded ac-
cess to full cost recovery for local partners imple-
menting United States foreign assistance activities; 
(12) undertaking outreach campaigns and en-
gaging with local actors, formally and informally, to 
raise awareness about opportunities, as well as how 
to apply for and manage awards in compliance with 
applicable Federal regulations and the relevant for-
eign assistance agency policies, and ensuring such 
engagement is accessible to all entities, including un-
registered and informal organizations; 
(13) 
strengthening 
oversight 
of 
capacity 
strengthening components of awards to ensure 
United States and international awardees are mak-
ing good-faith efforts to strengthen local organiza-
tions’ capacities, including independent and external 
evaluations to evaluate the mentorship process and 
regular feedback loops; 
(14) ensuring there are sufficient acquisition 
and assistance personnel; 
(15) soliciting feedback on and updating, as 
necessary, performance evaluation criteria to create 
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greater workforce incentives for the relevant foreign 
assistance agency personnel to champion locally led 
development; 
(16) addressing internal delays and recipient 
organization issues that result in the required exten-
sion of provisional Negotiated Indirect Cost Rates 
(NICRAs); 
(17) conducting seminars and providing docu-
mentation in local languages on NICRA, the de 
minimis indirect cost rate, and other options for in-
direct cost recovery relevant to the award type; and 
(18) ensuring that acquisition and assistance 
personnel communicate to awardees who do not sub-
mit for a NICRA that they are eligible for the de 
minimis indirect cost rate. 
SEC. 5. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ACTIONS DESCRIBED IN 
SECTION 4. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the head of the relevant foreign assist-
ance agency shall initiate policy actions, including rule-
making if necessary, to institutionalize the actions de-
scribed in section 4 to the extent appropriate and feasible 
within all relevant foreign assistance agency internal rules 
and regulations, including the Foreign Affairs Manual, the 
Foreign Affairs Handbook, and the Department of State 
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Acquisition Regulation, as well as other relevant strategies 
and policies. 
SEC. 6. AUTHORITY TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS, PRO-
POSALS, AND CONTRACTING AGREEMENTS IN 
LOCAL LANGUAGES AND LOCAL LANGUAGE 
SUPPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, the relevant foreign assistance agency is au-
thorized to accept applications or proposals in languages 
other than English if such acceptance eases the burden 
of a local actor working with such agency and such agency 
is able to effectively evaluate such applications or pro-
posals. 
(b) LOCAL LANGUAGE SUPPORT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The head of the relevant for-
eign assistance agency shall conduct an assessment 
of options to enable such agency to utilize local lan-
guages to support local partners with award solicita-
tions, proposals and applications, evaluations, man-
agement, close out, and other types of partnerships, 
including advising local partners on applicable 
United States regulations and the relevant foreign 
assistance agency policies and local country rules 
and regulations common in such activities. 
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(2) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the head of the 
relevant foreign assistance agency shall submit to 
Congress a report on the assessment described in 
this subsection. 
SEC. 7. MODIFICATIONS RELATING TO THE CODE OF FED-
ERAL REGULATIONS AND OTHER REQUIRE-
MENTS. 
(a) INCREASE
IN
THE
DE
MINIMIS
INDIRECT 
COST.—The head of the relevant foreign assistance agency 
is authorized to— 
(1) increase the de minimis indirect cost rate 
provided for in section 200.414 of title 2, Code of 
Federal Regulations, or any successor regulations, 
by 5 percentage points for local partners receiving 
assistance awards from the agency; and 
(2) establish a de minimis indirect cost rate at 
the same rate provided for in paragraph (1) for ac-
quisitions awarded under title 48 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations to local partners, and to in-
crease this threshold further should subsequent Of-
fice of Management and Budget regulations rec-
ommend doing so. 
(b) EXEMPTION FOR LOCAL ENTITIES.—The head of 
the relevant foreign assistance agency is authorized to ex-
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empt local partners, as needed, from the reporting require-
ments of the Federal Funding Accountability and Trans-
parency Act of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6106 note; Public Law 
109–282) to allow for a 180-day delay in obtaining a 
unique entity identifier and registration in the System for 
Award Management. This delay shall be no later than 30 
days prior to the end of the award’s period of perform-
ance. 
(c) LOCAL
COMPETITION
AUTHORITY.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, the head of the rel-
evant foreign assistance agency (or their designees) may 
award contracts and other acquisition instruments in 
which competition is limited to local entities if doing so 
would result in cost savings, strengthen local capacity, or 
enable the agency to deliver programs or activities more 
sustainably or quickly than if competition were not so lim-
ited. Such authority may not be used to make acquisition 
awards in excess of $25,000,000 and shall not exceed 
more than 10 percent of the amounts appropriated to the 
relevant foreign assistance agency each fiscal year. 
(d) USE OF NATIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL GEN-
ERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES.—The head 
of the relevant foreign assistance agency, in consultation 
with the Administrator of the General Services Adminis-
tration, the Secretary of Defense, and the Administrator 
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of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is 
authorized to allow foreign entities to use national or 
international generally accepted accounting principles in-
stead of United States Generally Accepted Accounting 
Principles (GAAP) for contracts or grants awarded under 
the chapter 7 of title 48, Code of Federal Regulations or 
chapter 7 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations. 
SEC. 8. REVIEW OF LOCALLY-LED DEVELOPMENT IN PUB-
LIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. 
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the head of the relevant foreign assistance 
agency shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-
mittees a review of public international organizations’ sup-
port for locally-led development, to include the following 
elements: 
(1) An assessment of how such organizations’ 
approaches and financing structures support locally- 
led development and humanitarian response. 
(2) An action plan for how the United States 
will use its position in such organizations to encour-
age greater focus on locally-led approaches. 
SEC. 9. ANNUAL REPORT. 
Not later than 1 year after the end of the first fiscal 
year following the date of the enactment of this Act, and 
annually thereafter, the head of the relevant foreign assist-
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ance agency shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees and publish on the agency’s website a report 
on the agency’s progress to advance locally led develop-
ment and humanitarian response, to include the following 
elements: 
(1) The amount of funding implemented di-
rectly and indirectly by local partners, including to 
local and national nonprofit organizations, local and 
national governments, and local and national private 
sector entities, in the previous fiscal year, including 
all development and humanitarian assistance pro-
grams. 
(2) An assessment of how the agency is ena-
bling more local leadership of foreign assistance pro-
grams, including recipients of direct funding, sub-
recipients and subcontractors to an international im-
plementing partner, participants in an agency pro-
gram, or members of a community affected by such 
programming. 
(3) An assessment of how the relevant foreign 
assistance agency is using new authorities granted in 
sections 6 and 7 and an assessment of the impact 
of these authorities on such agency’s ability to work 
with local partners and communities. 
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(4) An assessment of how many organizations 
with a Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (NICRA) cog-
nizant to the relevant foreign assistance agency are 
utilizing provisional NICRAs for over 48 months 
without a final NICRA and steps that such agency 
can take to reduce the extension of provisional 
NICRAs beyond 12 months. 
SEC. 10. REPORT ON CONTRACTING OFFICERS. 
Not later than 180 days after the enactment of this 
Act, the head of the relevant foreign assistance agency 
shall provide a report to the appropriate congressional 
committees on the recruitment and retention of con-
tracting officers and grant officers at such agency and rec-
ommendations to improve contracting/agreement officer 
recruitment and retention. 
SEC. 11. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
the Committee on Appropriations of the House 
of Representatives; and 
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(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
Senate. 
(2) LOCAL PARTNER.—The term ‘‘local part-
ner’’ means— 
(A) an individual who is a citizen or law-
fully admitted permanent resident of and have 
his or her principal place of business in the 
country or region receiving United States for-
eign assistance with which the individual is or 
may become involved; 
(B) a sole proprietorship that is owned by 
such an individual that meets the requirements 
of subparagraph (A); or 
(C) an entity that— 
(i) is incorporated or legally organized 
under the laws of, and have its principal 
place of business in, the country served by 
the program with which the entity is in-
volved or in a country within the same re-
gion as the program with which the entity 
is involved; 
(ii) determines its own autonomous 
leadership and governance structures, sets 
its own strategic direction, priorities, and 
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programmatic focus, and makes inde-
pendent financial decisions separately from 
an international organization; 
(iii) if it has a Board of Directors, has 
51 percent or more board directors who 
are citizens or lawfully permanent resi-
dents of such country or a country within 
the same region; and 
(iv) if it is a corporation, is 75 per-
cent beneficially owned at the time of ap-
plication by individuals who are citizens or 
lawfully admitted permanent residents of 
that same country. 
(3) RELEVANT
FOREIGN
ASSISTANCE
AGEN-
CY.—The term ‘‘relevant foreign assistance agency’’ 
means the department or agency designated as pri-
marily responsible for implementing the United 
States foreign assistance under part I of the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961. 
Æ 
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