Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2012 - Directs the President to establish guidelines regarding the establishment of measurable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and evaluation plans for U.S. foreign assistance.
Requires such guidelines to provide direction to federal departments and agencies that administer U.S. foreign assistance on developing the range of activities relating to: (1) resource monitoring, (2) project and program evaluation, and (3) analysis of findings and generalizations and their applicability to proposed project and program design.
Requires within one year: (1) each appropriate federal department or agency to begin using such guidelines, and (2) the President to submit a related report to Congress.
Directs the President to require the Secretary of State to establish and maintain an Internet website to make publicly available comprehensive and accessible information on U.S. foreign assistance programs.
Requires any cost of implementing this Act to 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 Congress.
[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3310 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
112th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3310
To direct the President, in consultation with the Department of State,
United States Agency for International Development, Millennium
Challenge Corporation, and the Department of Defense, to establish
guidelines for United States foreign assistance programs, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 19, 2012
Mr. Lugar introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the President, in consultation with the Department of State,
United States Agency for International Development, Millennium
Challenge Corporation, and the Department of Defense, to establish
guidelines for United States foreign assistance programs, 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 ``Foreign Aid Transparency and
Accountability Act of 2012''.
SEC. 2. GUIDELINES FOR UNITED STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to evaluate the
performance of United States foreign assistance programs and their
contribution to policy, strategies, projects, program goals, and
priorities undertaken by the Federal Government, to foster and promote
innovative programs to improve the effectiveness of such programs, and
to coordinate the monitoring and evaluation processes of Federal
departments and agencies that administer such programs.
(b) Establishment of Guidelines.--The President, in consultation
with the Department of State, United States Agency for International
Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Department of
Defense, shall establish 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 programs, country assistance plans, and international and
multilateral assistance programs receiving financial assistance from
the United States. Such guidelines shall be established according to
best practices of monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses.
(c) Objectives of Guidelines.--
(1) In general.--Such guidelines shall provide direction to
Federal departments and agencies that administer United States
foreign assistance programs on how to develop 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, generalizations that can be derived from those
findings, and their applicability to proposed project and
program design.
(2) Objectives.--Specifically, the guidelines shall provide
direction on how to achieve the following objectives for
monitoring and evaluation programs:
(A) Building measurable goals, performance 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 development
and implementation of monitoring and evaluation
programs to all personnel, especially in the field, who
are responsible for the design, implementation and
management of foreign assistance programs.
(C) Developing a clearinghouse capacity for the
dissemination of knowledge and lessons learned to
United States development professionals, implementing
partners, the international aid community, and aid
recipient governments, and as a repository of knowledge
on lessons learned.
(D) Distributing evaluation reports internally and
making this material available online to the public.
Furthermore, providing a summary including a
description of methods, key findings and
recommendations to the public on-line in a fully
searchable form within 90 days after the completion of
the evaluation. Principled exceptions will be made in
cases of classified or proprietary material.
(E) Establishing annual monitoring and evaluation
agendas and objectives that are responsive to policy
and programmatic priorities.
(F) Applying rigorous monitoring and evaluation
methodologies, choosing from among a wide variety of
qualitative and quantitative methods common in the
field of social scientific inquiry.
(G) Partnering with the academic community,
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 training plan for
aid personnel on the proper conduct of monitoring and
evaluation programs.
(d) Role of Other Federal Departments and Agencies.--The President
shall carry out this section in conjunction with the heads of Federal
departments and agencies that administer United States foreign
assistance programs.
(e) Report.--Not later than one year 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
developed on measurable goals, performance metrics, and monitoring and
evaluation plans for United States foreign assistance programs
established under this section.
(f) Evaluation Defined.--In this section, the term ``evaluation''
means, with respect to a United States foreign assistance program, the
systematic collection and analysis of information about the
characteristics and outcomes of the program and projects under the
program as a basis for judgments, to improve effectiveness, and to
inform decisions about current and future programming.
SEC. 3. INTERNET WEB SITE TO MAKE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE COMPREHENSIVE,
TIMELY, COMPARABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION ON UNITED
STATES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS.
(a) Establishment; Publication and Updates.--Not later than 2 years
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall
establish and maintain an Internet Web site to make publicly available
comprehensive, timely, comparable, and accessible information on United
States foreign assistance programs. The head of each Federal department
or agency that administers such programs shall on a regular basis
publish and update on the Web site such information with respect to the
programs of the 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 transparency,
accountability, and effectiveness of United States foreign
assistance programs, the information shall include country
assistance strategies, annual budget documents, congressional
budget justifications, actual expenditures, and reports and
evaluations for such programs and projects under such programs.
Each type of information described in this paragraph shall be
published on the Web site not later than 30 days after the date
of issuance of the information and shall be continuously
updated.
(3) Report in lieu of inclusion.--If the head of a Federal
department or agency makes a determination that the inclusion
of a required item of information on the Web site would
jeopardize the health or security of an implementing partner or
program beneficiary or would be detrimental to the national
interests of the United States, such item of information may be
submitted to Congress in a written report in lieu of including
it on the Web site, along with the reasons for not including it
in the database required under subsection (c)(2).
(c) Scope of Information.--
(1) In general.--The Web site shall contain such
information relating to the current fiscal year and the
immediately preceding 5 fiscal years.
(2) Database.--
(A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (B), the
Web site shall also contain a link to a searchable
database available to the public containing such
information relating to fiscal years prior to the
current fiscal year and the immediately preceding 5
fiscal years.
(B) Limitation.--The database shall not contain
such information relating to fiscal years prior to
fiscal year 2006.
(d) Form.--Such information shall be published on the Web site in
unclassified form. Any information determined to be classified
information may be submitted to Congress in classified form and an
unclassified summary of such information shall be published on the Web
site.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S4301)
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text of measure as introduced: CR S4301-4302)
Committee on Foreign Relations. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
Committee on Foreign Relations. Reported by Senator Kerry with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and an amendment to the title. With written report No. 112-233.
Committee on Foreign Relations. Reported by Senator Kerry with an amendment in the nature of a substitute and an amendment to the title. With written report No. 112-233.
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 538.
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