Berman referred to the bill as “a down payment on foreign aid reform” that would serve as a “forcing mechanism” to get the administration thinking about long-term policy and not just immediate crises. “ There are three parts to the bill: an overarching strategy, monitoring and evaluation and, as we are very pleased to note, aid transparency.

The bill will be followed later in the year by an “enormous rewrite” of the Foreign Assistance Act, which has been altered numerous times since it was first introduced in 1961.

Before this, Berman will introduce a one year reauthorisation bill for the State Department for foreign assistance programmes – such a bill has not been introduced since the 1980s.

Berman awaits the administration’s offering of its own plan to restructure State and foreign aid. Whilst Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has appointed a deputy secretary to deal with these issues (Jacob Lew), plans have yet to be announced and thus far no one has been nominated to head the U.S. Agency for International Development.