Title II — Oversight and Accountability

H.R. 5267 · 116th Congress · Nov 26, 2019 · Lineage

II Oversight and Accountability

Sec. 201 Office of Global Women’s Issues

(a)

Establishment— The Secretary of State shall establish in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of State the Office of Global Women’s Issues. The Office shall be headed by an Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Ambassador-at-Large shall report directly to the Secretary and shall have the rank and status of Ambassador-at-Large.

(b)

Purpose— In addition to the duties described in subsection (c) and duties determined by the Secretary of State, the Ambassador-at-Large shall coordinate efforts of the United States Government as directed by the Secretary regarding approaches that promote equality and advance the status of women and girls in United States foreign policy.

(c)

Duties—

(1)

In general— The Ambassador-at-Large—

(A)

in consultation with the Senior Coordinator, shall direct activities, policies, programs, and funding relating to gender equality and the advancement of women and girls internationally, including those intended to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls, for all bureaus and offices of the Department of State and in the international programs of all other Federal agencies;

(B)

shall actively promote and advance the integration of gender analysis into the programs, structures, processes, and capacities of bureaus and offices of the Department of State and in the international programs of other Federal agencies;

(C)

shall direct United States Government resources, as appropriate, to respond to needs for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women in United States Government foreign policies and international programs, including to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally;

(D)

may design, support, and implement activities regarding empowerment of women internationally, including for the prevention of and response to violence against women and girls internationally;

(E)

shall conduct regular consultation with civil society organizations working to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally;

(F)

shall ensure that programs, projects, and activities designed to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally are subject to rigorous monitoring and evaluation, and that there is a uniform set of indicators and standards for such monitoring and evaluation that is used across all Federal agencies;

(G)

shall serve as the principal advisor to the Secretary of State regarding gender equality, women's empowerment, and violence against women and girls as a foreign policy matter; and

(H)

is authorized to represent the United States in diplomatic and multilateral fora on matters relevant to the status of women and girls, including violence against women and girls internationally.

(2)

Information sharing and transparency— The Office—

(A)

shall be the central repository of data on all United States programs, projects, and activities that relate to prevention and response to violence against women and girls; and

(B)

shall produce a full accounting of United States Government spending on such programs, projects, and activities.

Sec. 202 Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

(a)

Establishment— There is established in the United States Agency for International Development the position of Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. The Senior Coordinator shall—

(1)

report to the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development; and

(2)

conduct the activities of the Administrator under this Act.

(b)

Duties— The Senior Coordinator—

(1)

in consultation with the Ambassador-at-Large, shall direct activities, policies, programs, and funding of the United States Agency for International Development relating to gender equality and women’s empowerment, including those intended to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls;

(2)

shall actively promote and advance the integration of gender analysis into the programs, structures, processes, and capacities of all bureaus and offices of the United States Agency for International Development as required by the Agency’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment Policy;

(3)

shall direct United States Agency for International Development resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment, including to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally;

(4)

may design, support, and implement activities led by the United States Agency for International Development regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment, including for the prevention and response to violence against women and girls internationally;

(5)

shall conduct regular consultation with civil society organizations working to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls internationally;

(6)

shall serve as the principal advisor to the Administrator regarding gender equality, women’s empowerment, and violence against women and girls; and

(7)

shall track and analyze monitoring and evaluation data and findings on international prevention and response programs of the United States Agency for International Development, consistent with Agency-wide monitoring and evaluation activities, to assist in the preparation of the strategy developed under section 101(a).

Sec. 203 Briefing and assessment

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Ambassador-at-Large and the Senior Coordinator shall provide, to the appropriate congressional committees—

(1)

a briefing on international violence against women and girls prevention and response strategies, programming, and associated outcomes; and

(2)

an assessment of human and financial resources necessary to fulfill the purposes and duties under this Act.

Sec. 204 Addressing violence against women and girls in humanitarian relief, peacekeeping, conflict, and postconflict settings

(a)

Activities of the department of State with USAID— The Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall ensure that—

(1)

bilateral and multilateral assistance made available for humanitarian relief, conflict mitigation, and post-conflict reconstruction including funds made available through Safe from the Start and other programs and efforts—

(A)

prevents and responds to violence against women and girls from the very onset of and throughout a crisis;

(B)

builds the capacity of humanitarian actors, including multilateral agencies and those leading relevant humanitarian cluster responses and Areas of Responsibility (AOR), such as the GBV AOR;

(C)

builds the capacity of local partners to address the special protection needs of women and children;

(D)

supports survivors of violence through education, essential medical and psychosocial assistance, trauma counseling, family and community reinsertion and reunification, and economic opportunity programs; and

(E)

provides legal services for women and girls who are victims of violence;

(2)

specialists in violence against women and girls are designated and deployed, as appropriate, as an integral part of Disaster Assistance Response Teams to ensure the integration of prevention and response to violence against women and girls internationally in strategies and programming; and

(3)

contractors, grantees, and governments that carry out programs with United States assistance—

(A)

train humanitarian workers in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls, including in the use of mechanisms to report violence against women and girls;

(B)

conduct appropriate public outreach to make known to the host community the mechanisms to report violence against women and girls; and

(C)

promptly and appropriately respond to reports of violence against women and girls and treat survivors in accordance with best practices regarding confidentiality.

(b)

Emergency response to credible reports of critical or widespread violence against women and girls—

(1)

In general— The Secretary of State, acting through the heads of relevant bureaus and offices of the Department of State, shall—

(A)

identify critical or widespread incidents of violence against women and girls in situations of armed conflict when such incidents occur, through consultation with other Federal departments and agencies, the United Nations, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations;

(B)

determine emergency response measures not later than 45 days after such identification; and

(C)

brief Congress, upon request, on the implementation of such emergency response measures and outcomes not later than 90 days after such determination.

(2)

Content— The emergency measures developed under paragraph (1) shall include a description of bilateral diplomatic efforts with—

(A)

the government of the country in which the violence is occurring;

(B)

governments in the region in which the violence is occurring; and

(C)

other donor governments.

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Nov 26, 2019viewing Introduced in House Ms. Schakowsky (for herself, Mr. Engel, Mrs. Lowey, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Speier, Mr. Garamendi, Mrs. Demings, Mr. Larsen of Washington, Mr. Carbajal, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Payne, Ms. Moore, Ms. Meng, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Deutch, Ms. Titus, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Moulton, Mr. Lowenthal, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Rush, Ms. Norton, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Connolly, Ms. Brownley of California, Mr. Pocan, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Suozzi, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, Mr. Richmond, Ms. Pingree, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Takano, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Cicilline, Ms. DeGette, Mr. Cartwright, Miss Rice of New York, Mr. DeFazio, Mr. Schneider, Mr. Gomez, Ms. Roybal-Allard, Ms. Frankel, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Smith of Washington, Mr. Luján, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. DelBene, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Mr. Soto, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Johnson of Texas, Mr. Welch, Mr. Ted Lieu of California, Mr. O'Halleran, Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire, Ms. Castor of Florida, Ms. Eshoo, Mr. Kind, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Ms. Wild, Mr. Larson of Connecticut, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Clay, Mr. Foster, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Casten of Illinois, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mrs. Dingell, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Serrano, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Price of North Carolina, Mr. Huffman, Mrs. Lawrence, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Lofgren, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Levin of Michigan, Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Ms. Barragán, Ms. Wexton, Ms. Mucarsel-Powell, Ms. Blunt Rochester, Mr. Bera, Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Cox of California, Mr. McEachin, Mr. Brown of Maryland, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Costa, Mrs. Luria, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Langevin, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Evans, Mrs. Bustos, Mr. Pascrell, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Meeks, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Ms. Haaland, Mr. Cuellar, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Trone, Mr. Malinowski, Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Cárdenas, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Omar, Ms. Adams, Ms. Sánchez, Ms. Jackson Lee, and Mr. Cisneros) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs