Sec. 5148. Countering PRC Influence Fund Unit
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The Secretary shall establish and maintain a Countering the PRC Influence Fund Unit (in this section referred to as the CPIF Unit ) in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The CPIF Unit may be comprised of a Director, Deputy Director, and additional staff as appropriate, including a Budget Analyst, a Grant Officer, a Program Assistant, and a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist. The CPIF Unit shall be comprised of personnel with expertise or experience in performing the following functions:
Grants Officer. Program Assistant. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist. The Director of the CPIF Unit shall fulfill the following responsibilities: Identify on an annual basis specific strategic priorities for the CPIF Unit consistent with United States national security priorities and objectives. In coordination with the head of the Office of Foreign Assistance and other relevant officials of the Department, coordinate, select, and approve all CPIF Unit programming, such as geographic and functional areas of focus, based on criteria that the program directly counters malign activities by the People’s Republic of China.
Ensure that all CPIF Unit programming advances United States foreign policy and national security interests. Conduct oversight, monitoring, and evaluation of the effectiveness of all CPIF Unit programming to ensure that it advances United States foreign policy and national security interests and degrades the ability of the People’s Republic of China or entities acting on the behalf of the People’s Republic of China to conduct malign influence operations. Ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that all CPIF Unit programming is carried out in coordination with other Federal activities to counter PRC malign influence.
On a quarterly basis, brief the appropriate congressional committees on the development of annual strategic priorities and CPIF Unit project selection and implementation. Provide a written list of CPIF Unit projects approved for each fiscal year to— the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate. The Deputy Director of the CPIF Unit may have responsibility for policy and programming to assist the Director, particularly with respect to CPIF Unit activities handled by other United States departments and agencies.
The Director of the CPIF Unit may— direct monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities to assess programmatic outcomes, maximize government efficiency, and reduce the risks of fraud and waste; conduct regular research and evaluation of CPIF Unit programs and activities to improve ongoing and future activities, including by implementing a process to ensure monitoring, evaluation, and learning results are considered in funding decisions; and make available to the appropriate congressional committees the findings of any research or evaluation conducted under paragraph (2).
In this section, the term PRC malign influence means activities by the Government of the People’s Republic of China or an entity acting on the behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China that— undermines a free and open international order; utilizes covert or overt information operations, corruption, political interference, cultural pressure, or economic coercion and dependency to influence the political, military, economic, or other policies of a foreign country to advance the strategic objectives of the People’s Republic of China; undermines the national security, territorial integrity, or sovereignty of the United States or other country; or undermines the political and economic security of the United States or other country, including by facilitating corruption or elite capture, distorting markets, and advancing coercive economic practices, including theft of intellectual property, and engaging in foreign information operations.
The CPIF Unit established under this section shall terminate on the date that is four years after the date of the enactment of this Act.