SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Global Poverty Act 
of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) More than one billion people worldwide live 
on less than $1 per day, and another 1,600,000,000 
people struggle to survive on less than $2 per day, 
according to the World Bank. 
(2) At the United Nations Millennium Summit 
in 2000, the United States joined more than 180 
other countries in committing to work toward the 
United Nations Millennium Development Goals to 
improve life for the world’s poorest people by 2015. 
(3) The United Nations Millennium Develop-
ment Goals include the goal of reducing by one-half 
the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 
and 2015, that live on less than $1 per day, cutting 
in half the proportion of people suffering from hun-
ger and unable to access safe drinking water and 
sanitation, reducing child mortality by two-thirds, 
ensuring basic education for all children, and revers-
ing the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, while sus-
taining the environment upon which human life de-
pends. 
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(4) On March 22, 2002, President George W. 
Bush stated: ‘‘We fight against poverty because hope 
is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty be-
cause opportunity is a fundamental right to human 
dignity. We fight against poverty because faith re-
quires it and conscience demands it. We fight 
against poverty with a growing conviction that major 
progress is within our reach.’’. 
(5) The 2002 National Security Strategy of the 
United States notes: ‘‘[A] world where some live in 
comfort and plenty, while half of the human race 
lives on less than $2 per day, is neither just nor sta-
ble. Including all of the world’s poor in an expanding 
circle of development and opportunity is a moral im-
perative and one of the top priorities of United 
States international policy.’’. 
(6) The 2006 National Security Strategy of the 
United States notes: ‘‘America’s national interests 
and moral values drive us in the same direction: to 
assist the world’s poor citizens and least developed 
nations and help integrate them into the global econ-
omy.’’. 
(7) The bipartisan Final Report of the National 
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United 
States recommends: ‘‘A comprehensive United 
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States strategy to counter terrorism should include 
economic policies that encourage development, more 
open societies, and opportunities for people to im-
prove the lives of their families and enhance pros-
pects for their children.’’. 
(8) At the summit of the Group of Eight (G– 
8) nations in July 2005, leaders from all eight coun-
tries committed to increase aid to Africa from the 
current 
$25,000,000,000 
annually 
to 
$50,000,000,000 by 2010, and to cancel 100 percent 
of the debt obligations owed to the World Bank, Af-
rican Development Bank, and International Mone-
tary Fund by 18 of the world’s poorest nations. 
(9) At the United Nations World Summit in 
September 2005, the United States joined more 
than 180 other governments in reiterating their 
commitment to achieve the United Nations Millen-
nium Development Goals by 2015. 
(10) The United States has recognized the need 
for increased financial and technical assistance to 
countries burdened by extreme poverty, as well as 
the need for strengthened economic and trade oppor-
tunities for those countries, through significant ini-
tiatives in recent years, including the United States 
Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and 
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Malaria Act of 2003, the Millennium Challenge Act 
of 2003, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initia-
tive, and trade preference programs for developing 
countries, such as the African Growth and Oppor-
tunity Act. 
(11) In January 2006, United States Secretary 
of State Condoleezza Rice initiated a restructuring 
of the United States foreign assistance program, in-
cluding the creation of a Director of Foreign Assist-
ance, who maintains authority over Department of 
State and United States Agency for International 
Development (USAID) foreign assistance funding 
and programs. 
(12) In January 2007, the Department of 
State’s Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance 
added poverty reduction as an explicit, central com-
ponent of the overall goal of United States foreign 
assistance. The official goal of United States foreign 
assistance is: ‘‘To help build and sustain democratic, 
well-governed states that respond to the needs of 
their people, reduce widespread poverty and conduct 
themselves responsibly in the international system.’’. 
SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States to promote the 
reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme 
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global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations 
Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the 
proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, 
who live on less than $1 per day. 
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE 
STRATEGY. 
(a) STRATEGY.—The President, acting through the 
Secretary of State, and in consultation with the heads of 
other appropriate departments and agencies of the Gov-
ernment of the United States, international organizations, 
international financial institutions, the governments of de-
veloping and developed countries, United States and inter-
national nongovernmental organizations, civil society orga-
nizations, and other appropriate entities, shall develop and 
implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United 
States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction 
of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global pov-
erty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millen-
nium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the pro-
portion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who 
live on less than $1 per day. 
(b) CONTENTS.—The strategy required by subsection 
(a) shall include, but not be limited to, specific and meas-
urable goals, efforts to be undertaken, benchmarks, and 
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