S. 820 — Caribbean Basin Security Initiative Authorization Act

This section defines key terms for the Act: (1) "appropriate congressional committees" as the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations; and (2) "beneficiary countries" as Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

This section authorizes the Secretary of State and USAID Administrator to carry out the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative in beneficiary countries to (1) promote citizen safety, security, and rule of law; (2) counter transnational criminal organizations and gangs through maritime and aerial interdiction, border and port security, and financial disruption; (3) advance law enforcement and justice sector capacity, including anti-corruption, human rights training, professionalization, justice reform, and cybersecurity; (4) promote crime prevention for at-risk youth and vulnerable populations; (5) strengthen security sector disaster resilience; (6) prioritize anti-corruption efforts; (7) counter malign influence from specified authoritarian regimes through monitoring assistance, restricting risky projects and vendors, countering disinformation, and promoting transparency; and (8) support branding of U.S. security assistance. It authorizes appropriations of $88 million to the Department of State and USAID.

This section requires the Secretary of State, in coordination with the USAID Administrator, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, an implementation plan for the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) that includes (1) a multi-year strategy with timeline, objectives, and anticipated outcomes for the region and each beneficiary country aligned with the purposes described in section 3; (2) specific, measurable benchmarks to track progress; (3) delineation of roles for the Departments of State, Justice, and Defense, USAID, and other agencies to prevent overlap; (4) coordination and tracking of all CBSI activities in accordance with publication requirements under section 4 of the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016 (22 U.S.C. 2394c); (5) a process for co-locating USAID and State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs projects; and (6) an assessment of steps to increase coordination between beneficiary countries' law enforcement and the Haitian National Police, with benchmarks. The section further requires annual progress reports to the committees, beginning one year after submission of the implementation plan, covering strategy implementation, benchmark progress, and prior-year funding statistics disaggregated by country.

This section directs the Secretary of State, in consultation with the USAID Administrator and Inter-American Foundation CEO, to carry out programs over five years from enactment to promote natural disaster response and resilience in beneficiary countries by (1) encouraging coordination with relevant U.S. federal departments and agencies for expertise and information sharing, (2) supporting the sharing of best practices on resilient infrastructure and post-disaster rebuilding, and (3) improving rapid-response mechanisms and cross-government preparedness. The section also requires (1) a strategy with specific, measurable benchmarks—submitted to the appropriate congressional committees within 180 days of enactment in coordination with the USAID Administrator and in consultation with the Inter-American Foundation CEO and relevant NGOs—to achieve those purposes and inform beneficiary country citizens of U.S. assistance benefits; and (2) annual progress reports on the benchmarks, beginning one year after strategy submission.