Ambassador Oversight and Transparency Act
Bill: S.4025 | Sponsor: Sen. Kaine, Tim (D-VA)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Ambassador Oversight and Transparency Act
This bill requires the President and each individual appointed or assigned to be a chief of mission to make certain disclosures, including (1) the source and extent of the individual's knowledge related to the area in which they have been nominated to serve, and (2) specified campaign contributions. The President must also certify that any contributions made by the nominee played no role in the nomination.

To require additional disclosures with respect to nominees to serve as 
              chiefs of missions, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ambassador Oversight and 
Transparency Act''.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES REQUIRED WITH RESPECT TO NOMINEES.

    Section 304 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3944) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(4), by adding at the end the 
        following: ``Each such report shall explain the source and the 
        extent of such nominee's knowledge of the principal language or 
        dialect of the country, region, or institution in which the 
        nominee has been nominated to serve as chief of mission and the 
        manner and extent to which such nominee meets the criteria 
        described in paragraph (1), particularly with respect to the 
        source and extent of such individual's knowledge and 
        understanding of the history, culture, economics, politics, and 
        interests of the people of such country, region, or 
        institution.''; and
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``Each'' and inserting the 
                        following: ``(A) In this paragraph--
            ``(i) the term `bundled contribution' has the meaning given 
        such term in section 304(i)(8)(A) of the Federal Election 
        Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(i)(8)(A));
            ``(ii) the term `contribution' has the meaning given such 
        term in section 301(8) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 
        1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(8)); and
            ``(iii) the term `immediate family' means--
                    ``(I) the spouse of the nominee;
                    ``(II) any child, parent, grandparent, brother, or 
                sister of the nominee; and
                    ``(III) the spouse of any of the individuals 
                described in subclause (II).
    ``(B) Each'';
                            (ii) in subparagraph (B), as redesignated, 
                        by striking ``fourth calendar year'' and 
                        inserting ``tenth calendar year'';
                            (iii) by striking ``The report'' and 
                        inserting the following:
    ``(C) The report shall include the disclosure of all bundled 
contributions facilitated by the nominee during the period described in 
subparagraph (B), in accordance with section 304(i)(8) of the Federal 
Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(i)(8)), and'';
                            (iv) by striking ``The chairman'' and 
                        inserting the following:
    ``(D) The chairman'';
                            (v) in subparagraph (D), as redesignated, 
                        by adding at the end the following: ``The 
                        Secretary of State shall publish each such 
                        report and each `Certificate of Competency' 
                        issued pursuant to subsection (a)(4)(A) on a 
                        publicly available website of the Department of 
                        State.''; and
                            (vi) by striking ``As used in this 
                        paragraph'' and all that follows; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3) The President shall certify to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations of the Senate that any contributions made by each individual 
nominated to be a chief of mission or members of the nominee's 
immediate family, whether or not included in the report described in 
paragraph (2), played no role in such nomination.''.

SEC. 3. MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENTS AT DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS.

    (a) In General.--Beginning not later than 1 year after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall annually 
conduct, at each diplomatic and consular post, a universal survey, 
which shall be completed by all staff assigned to that post who are 
citizens of the United States (excluding the chief of mission) to 
assess the management and leadership of that post by the chief of 
mission.
    (b) Anonymity.--All responses to the survey shall be anonymized 
before being made available to the relevant regional assistant 
secretary of the Department of State and the Director General of the 
Foreign Service.
    (c) Referral.--If corrective action does not resolve deficiencies 
in performance by the chief of mission identified by the survey, the 
Director General of the Foreign Service may refer the matter to the 
Inspector General of the Department of State, who shall conduct an 
inspection of the post in accordance with section 209(b) of the Foreign 
Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3929(b)).
    (d) Annual Report.--The Director General of the Foreign Service 
shall submit an annual report to the Committee on Foreign Relations of 
the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
Representatives that--
            (1) identifies the posts at which corrective action was 
        taken as a result of responses from a survey described in 
        subsection (a);
            (2) describes the performance deficiencies identified by 
        the survey and the corrective action taken to remediate such 
        deficiencies; and
            (3) explains the reasons for not referring the matter to 
        the Inspector General of the Department of State and the 
        Foreign Service.
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