The watershed Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 is fast becoming obsolete as the structure and substance of the foreign policy apparatus have dramatically changed.  Recognizing that the U.S. has a vested security interest in the development and stability of poor nations around the world, several prominent Senators from the Foreign Relations Committee have proposed sweeping structural change to how America provides foreign aid.  Their proposal is presented alongside a House bill with similar goals.

The proposed bill seeks to highlight the importance of U.S. development policy in advancing American security and economic interests across the globe.  Moreover, it seeks to better coordinate U.S. development policy with strategic planning and to increase the effectiveness of development assistance through evaluation and reporting best practices.

The bill would establish within USAID a Bureau for Policy and Strategic Planning, directed by the Assistant Administrator for Policy and Strategic Planning.  The Bureau for Policy and Strategic Planning is charged with creating and coordinating the United States’ policy on development assistance.

Within the Bureau for Policy and Strategic Planning, the bill would establish an Office for Learning, Evaluation, and Analysis in Development.  The Office for Learning is responsible for executing all evaluations and impact assessments for US foreign assistance projects.  The Office will also assume an active policymaking role in linking its evaluations to suggestions for reform for future aid programs.

Within the executive branch, the bill would establish a Council on Research and Evaluation of Foreign Assistance to assess the success of US foreign assistance and report on best practices.

The bill would require minimal funding for initial implementation and is intended to be cost saving over time.  The bill establishes new bureaucratic organs that seek to make U.S. foreign assistance more cost-effective.