SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Foreign Aid Trans-
parency and Accountability Act of 2012’’. 
SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVEL-
OPMENT ASSISTANCE. 
(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is to 
evaluate the performance of United States foreign develop-
ment assistance and its contribution to policy, strategies, 
projects, program goals, and priorities undertaken by the 
United States, to foster and promote innovative programs 
to improve the effectiveness of United States foreign devel-
opment assistance, and to coordinate the monitoring and 
evaluation processes of Federal departments and agencies 
that administer United States foreign development assist-
ance. 
(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 devel-
opment assistance. 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 development assistance on how to de-
velop the complete 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, gen-
eralizations that can be derived from those findings, 
and their applicability to proposed project and pro-
gram 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 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 development assistance pro-
grams. 
(C) Contributing to the collection and dis-
semination of knowledge and lessons learned to 
United States development professionals, imple-
menting partners, the international aid commu-
nity, and aid recipient governments, and as a 
repository of knowledge on lessons learned. 
(D) Distributing evaluation reports inter-
nally. 
(E) Establishing annual monitoring and 
evaluation agendas and objectives. 
(F) Applying rigorous monitoring and eval-
uation methodologies, including choosing from 
among a wide variety of qualitative and quan-
titative methods common in the field of social 
scientific inquiry. 
(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. 
(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 development assistance shall admin-
ister the United States foreign development 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 Congress a report that contains 
a detailed description of the guidelines that have been de-
veloped on measurable goals, performance metrics, and 
monitoring and evaluation plans for United States foreign 
development assistance established under this section. The 
report shall be submitted in unclassified form to the max-
imum extent possible, but may include a classified annex. 
(f) COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORTS.—The Comp-
troller General of the United States shall— 
(1) not later than one 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 development assistance have taken to 
ensure that United States foreign development as-
sistance program evaluation is planned, conducted, 
and utilized effectively; and 
(2) not later than two 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 develop-
ment assistance. 
(g) EVALUATION DEFINED.—In this section, the 
term ‘‘evaluation’’ means, with respect to a United States 
foreign development assistance program, the systematic 
collection and analysis of information about the character-
istics and outcomes of the program and projects under the 
program as a basis for judgments, to improve effective-
ness, and to inform decisions about current and future 
programming.
SEC. 3. INTERNET WEBSITE TO MAKE PUBLICLY AVAIL-
ABLE 
COMPREHENSIVE, 
TIMELY, 
COM-
PARABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION 
ON UNITED STATES FOREIGN DEVELOPMENT 
ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS. 
(a) 
ESTABLISHMENT; 
PUBLICATION
AND
UP-
DATES.—Not later than 30 days after the date of the en-
actment of this Act, the President shall direct the Sec-
retary of State to establish and maintain an Internet 
website to make publicly available in unclassified form 
comprehensive, timely, comparable, and accessible infor-
mation on United States foreign development assistance. 
The head of each Federal department or agency that ad-
ministers United States foreign development assistance 
shall, not later than 3 years after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, publish and on a quarterly basis update 
on the Internet website such information with respect to 
the United States foreign development assistance pro-
grams of such Federal department or agency. 
(b) MATTERS TO BE INCLUDED.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Such information 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 development assistance, such informa-