International Spending Transparency Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8907 To direct the Secretary of State to establish a unit within the Office of the Inspector General to audit United States contributions to multilateral and international organizations, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 9, 2020 Mr. BERGMAN (for himself, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. CRENSHAW, and Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To direct the Secretary of State to establish a unit within the Office of the Inspector General to audit United States contributions to multilateral and international or- ganizations, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Spending 4 Transparency Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8907.IH H8907 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8907 IH SEC. 2. AUDIT OF UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTIONS TO 1 MULTILATERAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGA- 2 NIZATIONS. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after the 4 date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall 5 establish within the Office of Audits of the Office of the 6 Inspector General of the Department of State a unit to 7 be known as the ‘‘Unit to Audit US Contributions to Mul- 8 tilateral and International Organizations’’. 9 (b) ANNUAL AUDIT.— 10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than December 31 11 of each year, the unit established pursuant to sub- 12 section (a) shall submit to the Secretary an audit of 13 United States contributions to multilateral and 14 international organizations during the immediately 15 preceding fiscal year. 16 (2) ELEMENTS.—Each audit under paragraph 17 (1) shall include the following: 18 (A) Information relating to— 19 (i) the aggregate amount of United 20 States contributions to recipient multilat- 21 eral and international organizations; 22 (ii) the amount of contributions spent 23 on administrative costs in comparison to 24 projects; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8907.IH H8907 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8907 IH (iii) the purposes for each such con- 1 tribution. 2 (B) An analysis relating to— 3 (i) whether each such organization 4 achieved the purpose for the contributions; 5 (ii) fraud, waste, or abuse of such 6 contributions by each such organization; 7 and 8 (iii) whether the contributions re- 9 ceived by each such organization were in 10 turn provided directly or indirectly to— 11 (I) the People’s Republic of 12 China; 13 (II) the Russian Federation; 14 (III) the Islamic Republic of 15 Iran; 16 (IV) the Democratic People’s Re- 17 public of Korea; 18 (V) the Bolivarian Republic of 19 Venezuela; 20 (VI) the Syrian Arab Republic; 21 or 22 (VII) an organization designated 23 as a foreign terrorist organization 24 pursuant to section 219 of the Immi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8907.IH H8907 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8907 IH gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1 1189). 2 (C) Information relating to the challenges 3 of citizens of the United States seeking employ- 4 ment in the United Nations. 5 (D) Information relating to the whistle- 6 blower protection standards of multilateral and 7 international organizations receiving contribu- 8 tions. 9 (c) REPORT.—Not later than 30 days after the re- 10 ceipt of each audit under subsection (a), the Secretary 11 shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees 12 a report based on the information and analysis in each 13 such audit. 14 (d) LIMITATION.—No additional appropriations are 15 authorized to carry out this section, which shall be carried 16 out using amounts otherwise authorized to be appro- 17 priated to the Department of State. 18 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 19 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT- 20 TEES.—the term ‘‘appropriate congressional commit- 21 tees’’ means— 22 (A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs in 23 the House of Representatives; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8907.IH H8907 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8907 IH (B) the Committee on Foreign Relations in 1 the Senate. 2 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 3 the Secretary of State. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:45 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8907.IH H8907 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS