S. 1351 — Sister City Transparency Act

This section defines four terms for purposes of the Act: (1) appropriate congressional committees, meaning the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and Armed Services, and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs, Education and the Workforce, and Armed Services; (2) foreign community, meaning any subnational unit of government outside the United States; (3) sister city partnership, meaning a formal agreement between a United States community and a foreign community that is recognized by Sister Cities International and operating within the United States; and (4) United States community, meaning a State, county, city, or other unit of local government in the United States.

This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study of sister city partnerships (i.e., international twinning programs promoting cultural and economic exchanges) between U.S. communities and foreign communities in countries scoring 45 or less on Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index. The study must (1) identify criteria for selecting U.S. partners (including economic and demographic themes), partnership activities and outcomes, public information on contracts and activities, safeguards for freedom of expression, and oversight against foreign espionage and economic coercion; (2) assess transparency of contracts and activities, economic vulnerabilities to malign practices, impacts on freedom of expression in educational arrangements, foreign nationals’ access to U.S. institutions, risks to U.S. economic and national security interests, contributions to global malign activities (e.g., human rights abuses and espionage), and mitigation of visa misuse; and (3) review the range of activities (e.g., cultural exchange and economic development), variations across partnerships, and best practices for transparency on agreements, activities, and employees. The Comptroller General must submit a report with findings, conclusions, and recommendations (if any) to the appropriate congressional committees within nine months of initiating the study; the report may include a classified annex.