I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2638 
To direct the President to establish guidelines for United States foreign 
assistance, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 10, 2013 
Mr. POE of Texas (for himself and Mr. CONNOLLY) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the President to establish guidelines for United 
States foreign assistance, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Foreign Aid Trans-
parency and Accountability Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSIST-
ANCE. 
(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to 
evaluate the performance of United States foreign assist-
ance and its contribution to policy, strategies, projects, 
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program goals, and priorities undertaken by the United 
States, to foster and promote innovative programs to im-
prove the effectiveness of United States foreign assistance, 
and to coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes 
of Federal departments and agencies that administer 
United States foreign assistance. 
(b) ESTABLISHMENT
OF GUIDELINES.—Not later 
than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the President shall establish guidelines regarding the 
establishment of measurable goals, performance metrics, 
and monitoring and evaluation plans that can be applied 
with reasonable consistency to United States foreign as-
sistance. Such guidelines should be established according 
to best practices of monitoring and evaluation studies and 
analyses. 
(c) OBJECTIVES OF GUIDELINES.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The guidelines established 
under this section shall provide direction to Federal 
departments and agencies that administer United 
States foreign assistance on how to develop the com-
plete range of activities relating to the monitoring of 
resources, the evaluation of projects, the evaluation 
of program impacts, and analysis that is necessary 
for the identification of findings, generalizations that 
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can be derived from those findings, and their appli-
cability to proposed project and program design. 
(2) OBJECTIVES.—Specifically, the guidelines 
shall provide direction on how to achieve the fol-
lowing objectives for monitoring and evaluation of 
programs: 
(A) Building measurable goals, perform-
ance metrics, and monitoring and evaluation 
into program design, to be tracked against an 
established baseline at the outset, including the 
provision of sufficient program resources to 
conduct monitoring and evaluation. 
(B) Disseminating guidelines for the devel-
opment and implementation of monitoring and 
evaluation programs to all personnel, especially 
in the field, who are responsible for the design, 
implementation, and management of United 
States foreign assistance programs. 
(C) Developing a clearinghouse capacity 
for the collection and dissemination of knowl-
edge and lessons learned that serve as bench-
marks to guide future programs for United 
States development professionals, implementing 
partners, the international aid community, and 
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aid recipient governments, and as a repository 
of knowledge on lessons learned. 
(D) Distributing evaluation reports inter-
nally and making the reports available online to 
the public. In addition, providing a summary of 
each evaluation, including a description of the 
evaluation methodology, and key findings and 
recommendations made in the evaluation, to the 
public online in a fully searchable form, within 
90 days after the completion of the evaluation. 
Any material made available online under this 
subparagraph may not include any classified or 
proprietary information of nongovernmental or-
ganizations, contractors, or private sector enti-
ties. 
(E) Establishing annual monitoring and 
evaluation agendas and objectives. 
(F) Applying rigorous monitoring and eval-
uation methodologies to focus on learning, ac-
countability, and policymaking, choosing from 
among a wide variety of qualitative, quan-
titative, summative, and formative methods 
common in the field of social scientific inquiry, 
including impact evaluations, a simple grading 
system providing a clear evaluation of out-
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comes, and analysis of project logic that in-
cludes inputs, activities, outputs, intermediate 
outcomes, and end outcomes. 
(G) Partnering with the academic commu-
nity, implementing partners, and national and 
international institutions that have expertise in 
monitoring and evaluation and analysis when 
such partnerships will provide needed expertise 
or will significantly improve the evaluation and 
analysis. 
(H) Developing and implementing a train-
ing plan for appropriate aid personnel on the 
proper conduct of monitoring and evaluation 
programs. 
(I) Providing relevant and useful evalua-
tion questions that meet the needs of decision 
makers, an appropriate and feasible design for 
the evaluation questions, and criteria that per-
mit objective assessment and valid conclusions 
on the evaluation questions. 
(J) Ensuring sufficient, credible, and reli-
able measures and data in the evaluation of the 
effectiveness of foreign assistance programs, in-
cluding an assessment of assumptions and limi-
tations made in such evaluation. 
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(K) Ensuring that generally accepted 
standards such as independence, professional 
judgment, competence, and quality control and 
assurance are followed in the monitoring and 
evaluation of programs. 
(d) IMPLEMENTATION OF GUIDELINES.—Beginning 
not later than one year after the date on which the Presi-
dent establishes the guidelines under this section, the head 
of each Federal department or agency that administers 
United States foreign assistance shall administer the 
United States foreign assistance in accordance with the 
guidelines. 
(e) PRESIDENTIAL REPORT.—Not later than 18 
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
President shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report that contains a detailed description 
of the guidelines that have been developed on measurable 
goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and evalua-
tion plans for United States foreign assistance established 
under this section. The report shall be submitted in un-
classified form to the maximum extent possible, but may 
include a classified annex. 
(f) IMPLEMENTATION NOT REQUIRED FOR CERTAIN 
SECURITY SECTOR ASSISTANCE.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of State shall 
not be required to administer any United States for-
eign assistance program relating to United States 
security sector assistance in accordance with the 
guidelines established under this section if the Sec-
retary of State makes a determination that the ad-
ministration of such program in accordance with the 
guidelines would be detrimental to the national in-
terests of the United States. 
(2) BRIEFINGS OR REPORT.—The Secretary of 
State shall provide briefings or submit a written re-
port to the appropriate congressional committees ex-
plaining any determination made under paragraph 
(1). Any such report may be submitted to the appro-
priate congressional committees in classified form. 
(g) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORTS.—The Comp-
troller General of the United States shall— 
(1) not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report that contains an 
analysis of the actions that the major Federal de-
partments and agencies that administer United 
States foreign assistance have taken to ensure that 
the evaluation of United States foreign assistance is 
planned, conducted, and utilized effectively; 
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(2) not later than 3 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, submit to the appropriate 
congressional committees a report that contains an 
analysis of— 
(A) the guidelines established pursuant to 
subsection (b); and 
(B) the implementation of the guidelines 
by the major Federal departments and agencies 
that administer United States foreign assist-
ance; and 
(3) not later than 5 years after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter for 
8 years, submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report that contains an analysis of the 
implementation of the guidelines by the major Fed-
eral departments and agencies that administer 
United States foreign assistance. 
(h) EVALUATION DEFINED.—In this section, the 
term ‘‘evaluation’’ means, with respect to a United States 
foreign assistance program, the systematic collection and 
analysis of information about the characteristics and out-
comes of the program and projects under the program as 
a basis for judgments, to improve effectiveness, and to in-
form decisions about current and future programming. 
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SEC. 3. REVISION TO INTERNET WEBSITE TO MAKE PUB-
LICLY AVAILABLE COMPREHENSIVE, TIMELY, 
COMPARABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE INFORMA-
TION ON UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSIST-
ANCE PROGRAMS. 
(a) REVISION; INFORMATION SHARING
AND UP-
DATES; FEEDBACK MECHANISM.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the President 
shall direct the Secretary of State to revise the De-
partment 
of 
State’s 
Internet 
website 
‘‘ForeignAssistance.gov’’ to make publicly available 
in unclassified form comprehensive, timely, com-
parable, and accessible information on United States 
foreign assistance. 
(2) INFORMATION SHARING AND UPDATES.— 
(A) INFORMATION SHARING.—The head of 
each Federal department or agency that admin-
isters United States foreign assistance shall, 
not later than 2 years after the date of the en-
actment of this Act, and every 90 days there-
after, provide to the Secretary of State such in-
formation with respect to the United States for-
eign assistance programs carried out by such 
Federal department or agency. 
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(B) UPDATES.—The Secretary of State 
shall publish not later than 2 years after the 
date of the enactment of this Act and thereafter 
update on a quarterly basis on the Internet 
website the information provided under sub-
paragraph (A). 
(3) FEEDBACK MECHANISM.—The website de-
scribed in paragraph (1) shall include a feedback 
mechanism through which individuals are able to 
provide comments on any United States foreign as-
sistance program. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The information described in 
subsection (a)(1) shall be published on a detailed 
program-by-program basis and country-by-country 
basis. 
(2) TYPES OF INFORMATION.—To ensure trans-
parency, accountability, and effectiveness of United 
States foreign assistance, such information shall in-
clude country assistance strategies, annual budget 
documents, congressional budget justifications, obli-
gations, expenditures, and reports and evaluations, 
including those developed pursuant to the guidelines 
established under section 2, for United States for-
eign assistance programs and projects under such 
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programs. Each type of information described in this 
paragraph shall be published or updated on the 
Internet website not later than 90 days after the 
date on which the information is issued. 
(3) REPORT IN LIEU OF INCLUSION.—If— 
(A) the head of a Federal department or 
agency makes a determination that the inclu-
sion of a required item of information on the 
Internet website under subsection (a)(1) would 
jeopardize the health or security of an imple-
menting partner or program beneficiary, or 
(B) the Secretary of State makes a deter-
mination that the inclusion of a required item 
of information on the Internet website under 
subsection (a)(1) would be detrimental to the 
national interests of the United States, 
then the head of such Federal department or agency 
or the Secretary of State, as the case may be, shall 
provide briefings to the appropriate congressional 
committees on the item of information or submit to 
the appropriate congressional committees the item of 
information in a written report in lieu of it being in-
cluded on the Internet website, along with the rea-
sons for it not being included on the Internet 
website. Any such item of information may be sub-
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mitted to the appropriate congressional committees 
in classified form. 
(c) SCOPE OF INFORMATION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Internet website shall 
contain the information described in subsection (b) 
as follows: 
(A) For fiscal year 2013, the information 
relating to such fiscal year and each of the im-
mediately preceding 2 fiscal years. 
(B) For fiscal year 2014, the information 
relating to such fiscal year and each of the im-
mediately preceding 3 fiscal years. 
(C) For fiscal year 2015, the information 
relating to such fiscal year and each of the im-
mediately preceding 4 fiscal years. 
(D) For fiscal year 2016 and each fiscal 
year thereafter, the information relating to such 
fiscal year and each of the immediately pre-
ceding 5 fiscal years. 
(2) OLDER
INFORMATION.—For fiscal year 
2017 and each fiscal year thereafter, the Internet 
website shall also contain a link to a searchable 
database available to the public containing informa-
tion described in subsection (b) relating to fiscal 
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years prior to the immediately preceding 5 fiscal 
years but subsequent to fiscal year 2010. 
SEC. 4. CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS IF REQUIREMENTS OF 
SECTION 3 ARE NOT MET. 
If the information described in section 3(b) with re-
spect to a United States foreign assistance program is not 
provided as required under section 3, then the head of the 
relevant Federal department or agency shall provide brief-
ings to the appropriate congressional committees, along 
with a detailed explanation of why the requirements for 
publication on the Internet have not been met and when 
they will be met, with respect to each month for which 
such information is not published on the Internet. 
SEC. 5. OFFSET. 
Of the amounts authorized to be appropriated for 
United States foreign assistance programs of a Federal 
department or agency that administers such programs for 
a fiscal year, up to 5 percent of such amounts are author-
ized to be appropriated to carry out this Act with respect 
to such programs for such fiscal year. 
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
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(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
the Committee on Appropriations of the House 
of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
Senate. 
(2) UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE.— 
The term ‘‘United States foreign assistance’’ means 
any tangible or intangible item provided by gift, 
loan, sale, credit, guaranty, or other means by any 
agency of the United States Government to a foreign 
country, including any training, service, or technical 
advice, any item of real, personal, or mixed property, 
any agricultural commodity, United States dollars, 
and any currencies of any foreign country which are 
owned by the United States Government. 
(3) UNITED STATES SECURITY SECTOR ASSIST-
ANCE.—The term ‘‘United States security sector as-
sistance’’— 
(A) means policies, programs, and activi-
ties that the United States Government employs 
to engage with foreign partners in the use of 
force to protect both the foreign state and its 
citizens at home or abroad, maintain inter-
national peace and security, and to enforce the 
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law and provide oversight of security institu-
tions and forces; and 
(B) includes helping foreign partners build 
and sustain the capacity and effectiveness of in-
stitutions to provide security, safety, and justice 
for their people and to contribute to efforts that 
address common security challenges. 
Æ 
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