[Senate Report 112-233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 538
112th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 112-233
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FOREIGN AID TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2012
_______
November 13, 2012.--Ordered to be printed
Mr. Kerry, from the Committee on Foreign Relations,
submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 3310]
The Committee on Foreign Relations, having had under
consideration an amendment in the nature of a substitute to S.
3310, to direct the President to establish guidelines for
United States foreign assistance, and for other purposes,
reports favorably thereon, and recommends that the bill do
pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose..........................................................1
II. Committee Action.................................................1
III. Discussion.......................................................1
IV. Cost Estimate....................................................5
V. Evaluation of Regulatory Impact..................................5
VI. Changes in Existing Law..........................................5
I. PURPOSE
The purpose of the Foreign Aid Transparency and
Accountability Act of 2012 is to evaluate the performance of
United States foreign assistance and its contribution to
policy, strategies, projects, program goals, and priorities
undertaken by the Federal Government, to foster and promote
innovative programs to improve effectiveness, and to coordinate
the monitoring and evaluation process of Federal departments
and agencies that administer foreign assistance.
II. COMMITTEE ACTION
S. 3310 was introduced on June 19, 2012, by Senator Lugar.
On September 19, 2012, the committee considered an amendment in
the nature of a substitute to S. 3310 and ordered S. 3310, as
amended, reported by voice vote.
III. DISCUSSION
Originally enacted in 1961, the Foreign Assistance Act
(FAA) set in motion the parameters under which the United
States provides foreign assistance to developing nations. Since
then, the law has been reauthorized several times with the end
result that U.S. foreign assistance today is conducted through
largely disparate programs in more than 20 Federal agencies
which are carrying out diverse foreign assistance activities
pursuant to administration and congressional priorities. Some
programs are likely more effective than others, but both
Congress and the executive branch have had no uniform way to
measure this aid effectiveness. Nor has there been a clear and
transparent way of explaining how much money is spent on
foreign assistance in each country and for what purposes the
money is being spent.
In 2004 Congress created the Helping to Enhance the
Livelihood of People Around the World Commission (the ``HELP
Commission''). Established as an independent, bipartisan
commission, its purpose was to evaluate the efficiency and
effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance. In taking on this
task, members of the Commission developed a mission statement
in which they committed to ``develop and deliver actionable
proposals to the President, Secretary of State and Congress to
enhance and leverage the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S.
foreign assistance programs to reduce poverty through sustained
economic growth and self-sufficiency.'' Further, Commission
members also agreed to ``communicate the need for change and
will make bold recommendations for mechanisms, structures, and
incentives which will create definable, achievable, and
measurable outcomes that empower recipients and meet U.S.
national security and foreign policy goals and objectives.''
Among its many observations regarding U.S. foreign
assistance, the Commission addressed the lack of an effective
system to monitor and evaluate programs, noting ``the systems
our government uses to evaluate development and humanitarian
assistance programs are either in disarray or do not exist.''
In 2009 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee used many of
the recommendations of the HELP Commission to draft the Foreign
Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009
(FARAA). As the report accompanying the bipartisan legislation
(111-122) explains, the bill resulted from more than 2 years of
comprehensive research by committee staff that included
``consultations and deliberations with country missions,
country team officials, senior government officials, key NGO,
civil society, private sector, academic and think-tank
stakeholders . . . '' The committee approved the legislation in
November 2009, but it was not considered by the full Senate.
Among its key priority areas, the legislation provided a
framework for the creation of sound systems to rebuild the
internal capacity of the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID) ``to monitor, evaluate, and improve the
design of its programs and activities.'' Additionally, it
sought to increase accountability and transparency of U.S.
foreign assistance programs across all government departments
and agencies.
Despite the fact that FARAA was never signed into law, the
State Department and the U.S. Agency for International
Development, through the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development
Review (QDDR) process, drew upon key components from the
legislation, namely: (1) the need to establish monitoring and
evaluation of foreign assistance programs; and (2) the need to
explain U.S. assistance programs in a transparent manner. In
February 2011, USAID's new Office of Policy, Planning and
Learning announced (as the agency's first policy), an agency
policy on Monitoring and Evaluation. The State Department
followed with its own Program Evaluation Policy in February
2012.
Taking the lead among Federal agencies in publicly
presenting U.S. foreign assistance funding, in 2011 the State
Department and USAID launched an Internet Web site, the
``Foreign Assistance Dashboard.'' (Available at
www.foreignassistance.gov.) While the Dashboard will eventually
include all agencies of government engaged in the distribution
of foreign assistance, few agencies currently display this
information, and the committee has been disappointed with the
slow implementation of this important fiscal transparency tool.
Internationally, both foreign aid donor and recipient
countries have begun working to bring improved effectiveness of
that aid through agreements including the Paris Declaration of
2005 and the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action. Through the
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), donor
countries have committed to publicly disclosing their aid, its
purposes and its effectiveness on a timely basis. In November
2011, Secretary of State Clinton committed the United States as
a signatory to the IATI.
While the State Department and USAID have made progress in
both setting new standards for monitoring and evaluating the
foreign assistance they administer and in publicly displaying
its distribution and purpose through the Dashboard, the
committee believes that Congress should establish a statutory
framework for these important policy efforts. The committee is
especially intent on working with the executive branch under
the direction of the President to establish uniform standards
in the monitoring and evaluation of foreign assistance as
numerous agencies across government now also administer foreign
assistance. Further, it is through an effective monitoring and
evaluation process that Congress and the executive branch may
review the demonstrated accomplishments or shortcomings of
United States foreign assistance programs and, if need be, make
appropriate adjustments to them in a timely manner. Such action
has the enhanced benefit of bringing increased fiscal integrity
to U.S. foreign assistance programs.
Further, the committee believes it is important to
establish firm time lines for the completion of the Foreign
Assistance Dashboard in order to more effectively evaluate U.S.
foreign assistance programs. During this time of significant
pressure on the Federal budget and our burgeoning national
debt, it is critical that the American public, as well as
foreign assistance recipient countries, are able to know where
funds flow, for what purposes and to what end.
Section 2--Guidelines for United States Foreign Assistance Programs
Section 2(a) describes the purpose for establishing
guidelines for United States foreign assistance programs.
Section 2(b) requires that not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act the President shall
establish uniform guidelines regarding the establishment of
measurable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and
evaluation plans that can be applied on a uniform basis to
United States foreign assistance.
Section 2(c) describes the objectives of the guidelines to
be established by the President for United States foreign
assistance including 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 can be derived from those findings and
their applicability to proposed project and program design. It
also describes the specific objectives for how the President
shall provide direction for monitory and evaluation programs.
Section 2(d) requires the head of each Federal department
or agency that administers foreign assistance to administer
that assistance in accordance with the newly established
guidelines beginning not later than one year after the date on
which the President has established the guidelines under
subsection (b).
Section 2(e) requires the President to submit a report to
Congress not later than one year after the date of enactment of
this Act. The report should contain a detailed description of
the guidelines that have been developed on the measurable
goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and evaluation plans
for United States foreign assistance programs.
Section 2(f) defines the term evaluation.
Section 3--Internet Web Site to Make Publicly Available Comprehensive,
Timely, Comparable, and Accessible Information on United States
Foreign Assistance Programs
Section 3(a) requires the President to direct the Secretary
of State to establish and maintain an Internet website for the
purpose of making information regarding U.S. foreign assistance
programs publicly available. It further requires that the head
of each Federal agency administering foreign assistance publish
this information within three years of enactment of this
legislation and that the information be updated on a quarterly
basis.
Section 3(b) describes the foreign assistance information
that must be included on the Internet webpage. It includes
details on a program-by-program and country basis, country
assistance strategies, annual budget documents, congressional
budget justifications, obligations, expenditures, and reports
and evaluations for U.S. foreign assistance programs. In the
event that a Federal department or agency determines that
materials for publication may jeopardize the health or security
of an implementing partner or would have a detrimental impact
on U.S. national interests, that department or agency may
instead provide briefings to Congress on the foreign assistance
program in lieu of posting the information on the Internet.
Section 3(c) provides a detailed description of the scope
of the material to be included on the Internet website so that
the website will include three years of information with the
posting of fiscal year 2013 material and information on the
prior two fiscal years. With each new year of information
posted, there will be a more comprehensive history of foreign
assistance funding so that at the time of the posting of the
fiscal year 2016 information, the Internet website will include
that year and the immediate prior five fiscal years. Beginning
with the posting of fiscal year 2017 information, any
information older than the prior five fiscal years must remain
available in a searchable database.
Section 3(d) requires that all information published on the
Internet website must be in an unclassified form. Should any of
the information required to be published be classified, that
information may instead be submitted to Congress in classified
form. The section requires, however, that information on a
classified topic shall still be published on the Internet
website in an unclassified summary form unless the head of the
Federal department or agency, in consultation with appropriate
congressional committees, determines this publication would
have a detrimental effect on national security.
Section 4 requires that any cost of implementation of this
statute be offset through the elimination of initiatives,
positions, and programs within a Federal department or agency
administering foreign assistance, as determined by the
Secretary of State and the head of each Federal department or
agency in consultation with the appropriate congressional
committees. It further prohibits the net increase in any
personnel to carry out the provisions of the Act. This section
also requires a report to Congress within 90 days of enactment
of this Act on the elimination of programs or initiatives
within the Department of State or other Federal department or
agency to ensure the offset of costs for compliance with the
Act.
Section 5(1) defines appropriate congressional committees
as the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign
Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives.
Section 5(2) defines the term U.S. foreign assistance as
having the meaning given the term ``foreign assistance'' in
section 634(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2394 (b)).
IV. COST ESTIMATE
Rule XXVI, paragraph 11(a) of the Standing Rules of the
Senate requires that committee reports on bills or joint
resolutions contain a cost estimate for such legislation. To
date, the committee has not received the Congressional Budget
Office cost estimate for S. 3310.
V. EVALUATION OF REGULATORY IMPACT
Pursuant to Rule XXVI, paragraph 11(b) of the Standing
Rules of the Senate, the committee has determined that there is
no regulatory impact as a result of this legislation.
VI. CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with Rule XXVI, paragraph 12 of the Standing
Rules of the Senate, the committee has determined that there
are no changes to existing laws as a result of this bill.