BEST Ambassadors Act
Bill: H.R.5643 | Sponsor: Rep. Levin, Andy (D-MI)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Bolstering the Effectiveness, Success, and Transparency of Ambassadors Act or the BEST Ambassadors Act
This bill expands disclosure requirements for individuals nominated to serve as an ambassador or in a related position.
If the President's nominee to serve as a chief of mission is not a career member of the Foreign Service, the President must provide to Congress a justification explaining whether a career member was available and why the nominee is uniquely qualified to serve in the position.
The President must certify that any campaign contributions made by an individual (or the individual's immediate family members) played no role in the decision to nominate the individual to serve as a chief of mission. The nominee must also provide to Congress an explanation concerning how the nominee meets the criteria for performing the position's duties.
A nominee to serve as a chief of mission, ambassador at large, or minister must report to Congress political contributions made by the individual or immediate family members in the 10 calendar years preceding the nomination (currently, the report only requires reporting of contributions from the preceding 4 calendar years). The Department of State must make this information available on its public website.

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 ``Bolstering the Effectiveness, 
Success, and Transparency of Ambassadors Act'' or the ``BEST 
Ambassadors Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Foreign Service Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-465) 
        states, ``An individual appointed or assigned to be a chief of 
        mission should possess clearly demonstrated competence to 
        perform the duties of a chief of mission, including, to the 
        maximum extent practicable, a useful knowledge of the principal 
        language or dialect of the country in which the individual is 
        to serve, and knowledge and understanding of the history, the 
        culture, the economic and political institutions, and the 
        interests of that country and its people'' and continues that, 
        accordingly, ``positions as chief of mission should normally be 
        accorded to career members of the [Foreign] Service.''.
            (2) The percentage of ambassadorships filled by political 
        appointees has increased over the past 40 years. During 
        President Jimmy Carter's term, between 1977 and 1981, about 26 
        percent of ambassadorships were filled by political appointees. 
        During President Ronald Reagan's terms, between 1981 and 1989, 
        about 38 percent were. More recently, under President Barack 
        Obama, about 30 percent of ambassadors were political 
        appointees, while about 43 percent were under President Donald 
        J. Trump as of September 14, 2020.
            (3) The United States practice of appointing political 
        ambassadors is atypical globally. According to a 2017 
        University of Texas at Austin study, ``At the senior level, the 
        United States is an extreme outlier among foreign services in 
        the number of political appointees as ambassadors, even in key 
        posts.''.
            (4) Political appointees are not necessarily unsuccessful 
        ambassadors. According to the 2017 University of Texas study, 
        ``there have been highly accomplished political appointees who 
        have been superb ambassadors.'' The report continues, however, 
        ``there have been many more patronage appointees with no 
        relevant qualifications, having been chosen principally for 
        their support in presidential election campaigns. Contrast 
        these U.S. ambassadors with their counterparts from other 
        countries, who typically speak several languages, are well 
        versed in the country to which they are assigned and are career 
        professionals with extensive knowledge of their home 
        ministries.''.
            (5) The Foreign Service Act of 1980 states, ``Contributions 
        to political campaigns should not be a factor in the 
        appointment of an individual as a chief of mission.''. However, 
        this law has not forestalled the appointment--by both 
        Democratic and Republican presidents--of campaign donors 
        without apparent qualifications to serve in these posts.
            (6) To ensure the United States has the best representation 
        possible abroad, it will be necessary to preserve the option to 
        appoint political ambassadors while enacting safeguards to 
        ensure these appointees are nominated because of their 
        qualifications, not their campaign contributions.

SEC. 3. ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES REQUIRED WITH RESPECT TO NOMINEES.

    Section 304 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 3944) is 
amended as follows:
            (1) In paragraph (4) of subsection (a), by adding at the 
        end the following new sentence: ``If, as of the date of the 
        submission of such report, such individual has not served as a 
        career member of the Service, the President shall also include 
        in such report a justification explaining whether a career 
        member is available to fill such position and the manner and 
        extent to which the nominee is nevertheless uniquely qualified 
        to serve in such position.''.
            (2) In paragraph (2) of subsection (b)--
                    (A) by striking ``fourth calendar year'' and 
                inserting ``tenth calendar year''; and
                    (B) by inserting ``and the Secretary of State shall 
                publish each such report and each `Certificate of 
                Competency' issued pursuant to this section on a 
                publicly available website of the Department of State'' 
                after ``Congressional Record''.
            (3) At the end of subsection (b), by adding the following 
        new paragraphs:
            ``(3) With respect to each nomination for an individual to 
        be a chief of mission, the President shall certify to the 
        Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate that any campaign 
        contributions made by the nominee or members of his or her 
        immediate family, whether or not included in the report 
        described in paragraph (2), played no role in such nomination.
            ``(4) Each individual nominated by the President to be a 
        chief of mission shall include in his or her statement to the 
        Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate an explanation of 
        the manner and extent to which such individual meets the 
        criteria described in paragraph (1) of subsection (a), 
        including the source and extent of such individual's knowledge 
        and understanding of the history, culture, economic and 
        political institutions, and interests of the people of such 
        country, and level of familiarity with the country's principal 
        language or dialect, including, if relevant, the scores 
        received in speaking and reading examinations taken at the 
        Foreign Service Institute for that language.''.
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