Bipartisan Bills Would Improve Foreign Aid Through Greater Transparency and Accountability
Washington, D.C. – Bread for the World strongly supports the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2015 (H.R. 3766 / S. 2184), introduced by U.S. Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
These coordinated House and Senate bills establish important guidelines to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance dollars are administered in a transparent, accountable, and effective way.
“Making all U.S. foreign assistance more transparent and accountable will help certify that money is used efficiently,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Passage of this bill is especially important now that the global community has embraced development goals that would virtually end hunger and poverty by 2030. It’s clear that more openness and transparency are key to helping the U.S. achieve better results and lead the charge of ending global hunger and poverty.”
Similar versions of this bill were unanimously passed by the House in the 112th Congress and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 113th Congress.
The legislation would require the U.S. president to establish uniform interagency guidelines across all U.S. foreign assistance programs and maintain a public website—known as the Foreign Assistance Dashboard (www.foreignassistance.gov)—with detailed information about how such assistance is used by program and country. Each relevant federal department or agency would be required to publish and update the dashboard quarterly with country assistance strategies, annual budget documents, budget obligations and expenditures, and evaluation reports for projects and programs.
“We thank the bipartisan congressional leadership in both the Senate and House for introducing these bills,” Beckmann said. “We urge Congress to pass the legislation as soon as possible.”
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