H.R. 1114 — L’Ouverture Economic Development Plan for Haiti Act of 2025

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “L’Ouverture Economic Development Plan for Haiti Act of 2025.”

This section sets forth congressional findings on Haiti, including that Haiti’s 1804 independence ended slavery, that the United States imposed a trade embargo in 1806, that Haiti was later required to pay France an indemnity beginning in 1825 that amounts to at least $21 billion today, and that Haiti’s diaspora sent over $4 billion in remittances in 2023, equal to more than one-fifth of Haiti’s gross domestic product. It also states that the Haitian-American population is 1.2 million, that Haiti is strategically important to the United States, and that Haiti will need at least $19.3 billion (in 2020/2021 dollars) to achieve 7 percent annual GDP growth, eliminate extreme poverty, double manufacturing growth, improve health and education outcomes, and protect environmental biodiversity.

This section states that the Act’s purposes are to promote Haitian private sector development, including micro, small, and medium businesses and the agriculture, biodiversity, construction, energy, finance, manufacturing, and tourism sectors, as well as U.S.-Haitian joint ventures and the Haitian-American diaspora; to support that development through equity investments, feasibility studies, grants, guarantees, insurance, loans, technical assistance, and training; to foster an accountable, transparent, and sustained democratic system of governance in Haiti in coordination with the Global Fragility Act of 2019; and to encourage industrialization and full employment in Haiti to reduce irregular migration flows, which the Act identifies as a U.S. national security concern.

This section establishes the policy of the United States to support the sustainable rebuilding and development of Haiti. It states that U.S. policy should recognize Haiti’s sovereignty and the longstanding historical, economic, and cultural ties between the two countries; support a Haitian-led democratic transition through free, fair, and transparent elections; and oppose efforts to destabilize Haiti. It also directs support for strengthening Haitian institutions, the judiciary, governance, anticorruption efforts, press freedom, civil society, media independence, and human rights, including enforcement of sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note) against individuals implicated in human rights violations and corruption. This section further states that U.S. policy should improve Haiti’s security by supporting the Haitian National Police, combating gang violence and illicit firearms trafficking from the United States to the Caribbean, encouraging civilian oversight and human rights compliance, and supporting a Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reinsertion program. It also calls for humanitarian assistance to address food security, health, education, and protection needs; economic development support through trade, investment, infrastructure, entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized enterprises, and trade preferences under the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Act of 2006 and the Haiti Economic Lift Program Act of 2010 (19 U.S.C. 2703 et seq.); coordination with other countries and international organizations; and assistance to restore Haiti’s natural resources and strengthen resilience to environmental and weather-related impacts.

This section establishes the Haitian American Enterprise Fund for Haiti as a private, nonprofit organization that the President may designate if the organization is a section 501(c)(3) entity exempt from tax under section 501(a), the President determines it can carry out the activities described in section 7, and the President consults with the Speaker and minority leader of the House of Representatives and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate. It directs the Chief Executive Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation to operate the Fund after designation and authorizes consultation and coordination with the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. It also specifies that the Fund is not a federal agency or establishment and that its officers, employees, and Oversight Panel members are not officers or employees of the United States under title 5 of the U.S. Code.

This section establishes a 9-member Board of Directors Oversight Panel to monitor the Enterprise Fund. It requires the Chief Executive Officer to appoint 7 members: 5 individuals who are not employed by the Federal Government and are either U.S. citizens or Haiti citizens who primarily reside in the United States and have demonstrated respect for democracy and a free-market economy, and 2 Haiti citizens who are not U.S. citizens and have demonstrated respect for democracy and a free-market economy, including either a successful private-sector career in private equity, banking, or finance in a developing economy or comparable board experience with a similar fund that earned a positive return. It also requires the President to appoint 2 U.S. citizens who primarily reside in the United States and have demonstrated concern for and commitment to Haiti’s economic development. The section further encourages the Chief Executive Officer and Oversight Panel members to consult with representatives of other U.S. enterprise funds, multilateral institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and leaders from the private sector, civil society, labor organizations, human rights groups, academia, and environmental organizations in the United States and Haiti.

This section aligns the Haiti Enterprise Fund’s investment priorities with the Global Fragility Strategy under 22 U.S.C. § 9803(a) and expands the Fund’s authorized activities to support Haiti’s private sector, infrastructure, governance, and economic recovery. It authorizes investments and related support for micro, small, and medium businesses; agriculture, biodiversity, construction, energy, finance, manufacturing, and tourism; joint ventures with U.S. entities or the Haitian-American diaspora; and projects that improve electricity, roads, bridges, ports, railroads, dams, canals, water, sanitation, and health infrastructure. It also directs the Fund to create a report on the cost of upgrading Haiti’s physical infrastructure to resilience standards and on completed infrastructure projects, and to prioritize industries identified by the Government of Haiti as economic recovery priorities. (Thus, the Fund may use equity investments, grants, guarantees, loans, insurance, technical assistance, and training to support development, industrialization, job creation, and reduced irregular migration in Haiti.)

This section authorizes the Enterprise Fund to use investment returns and payments received by the fund, without depositing those amounts in the Treasury and without additional congressional appropriation, to make the investments described in section 7. It directs the Chief Executive Officer to make investments in a manner that ensures the Enterprise Fund can repay the Treasury as required under section 11. This section also authorizes the Enterprise Fund to raise United States private venture capital through public offerings or private placements and to use that capital, alone or with appropriated funds, for any lawful investment purpose the Chief Executive Officer considers appropriate to carry out the Act. It specifies that accepting private venture capital does not give private investors any oversight role in the Enterprise Fund and allows financial returns on investments that include private venture capital to be distributed to those investors at times and in amounts the Chief Executive Officer considers appropriate. This section limits the use of Enterprise Fund money by prohibiting any funds from benefiting Oversight Panel members, officers, or employees except as salary or reasonable compensation for services. It further limits the use of Federal funds by capping grants at 20 percent of Federal funds made available to the Enterprise Fund and caps the use of appropriated funds for operating costs and feasibility studies at 15 percent of appropriated funds (from no specified cap).

This section requires the Enterprise Fund to undergo annual audits by an independent certified public accountant or independent licensed public accountant, and, in any year in which the Enterprise Fund holds funds received from the United States Government, requires the Comptroller General of the United States to audit the Fund’s financial transactions to identify waste, fraud, or abuse. It also requires each recipient of Enterprise Fund assistance under section 7 to maintain a separate account for those funds and records sufficient to disclose the amount provided, the total amount received, the total project or activity cost, and the amount financed from non-Enterprise Fund sources, and grants the Chief Executive Officer access to those records for audit and examination.

This section establishes reporting requirements for the Enterprise Fund. It requires the Chief Executive Officer to make a public report available not later than 180 days after the Fund is established and annually thereafter until the Fund terminates, describing the funds provided for activities and projects under section 7 and explaining the commercial viability of each activity and project. It also requires the Chief Executive Officer to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year in which the Fund is established and annually thereafter until termination, describing the Fund’s successes, failures, expenses, activities, funding, and forecasted projections and including the results of the audit required under section 9(a). For this purpose, the appropriate congressional committees are the House Committees on Appropriations, Financial Services, and Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations. In addition, it requires the Oversight Panel to submit to Congress and the President, not later than 180 days after enactment and annually thereafter until the Fund terminates, a report on the Panel’s duties during the preceding year, including successes in implementing the Fund and challenges preventing it from reaching its full potential. Finally, it requires the Chief Executive Officer to make a public report not later than 120 days after the last day of any year in which the repayment to the Treasury required by section 11 has not been completed, describing the Fund’s operations, activities, financial condition, and accomplishments during that year.

This section terminates the Enterprise Fund by December 31, 2031, and requires the Chief Executive Officer to repay to the Treasury the full amount of federal funds the Enterprise Fund received from the United States Government by that date.

This section authorizes executive branch agencies to conduct programs and activities and provide services in support of the Enterprise Fund, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

This section authorizes $1 billion for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2031 to carry out the Act, with the funds available until expended or until the Enterprise Fund terminates, whichever occurs first.