H.R. 8708 · 117th Congress

Madeleine K. Albright Democracy in the 21st Century Act

Introduced on Aug 12, 2022 by Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-7). 37 cosponsors, 2 of them from another party. Latest action (Aug 12, 2022): Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Aug 12, 2022
Cosponsors
37
2 from the other party
Policy area
International Affairs
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

To strengthen United States national security through the defense of democracy abroad and to address contemporary threats to democracy around the world, and for other purposes.

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in House, Aug 12, 2022). Public domain.

Madeleine K. Albright Democracy in the 21st Century Act

This bill establishes programs to promote democracy abroad, authorizes Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) democracy programs from FY2023 through FY2027, and addresses related issues.

The State Department must establish programs (1) to defend democracy globally, including by enhancing the ability of the State Department and USAID to respond quickly and flexibly to democratic openings and backsliding; (2) to support efforts to enhance government transparency and other activities related to reducing corruption; and (3) for democracy research and development, such as activities to drive innovation in State Department, USAID, and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) responses to complex challenges to democracy.

The bill establishes the Democracy in the 21st Century Fund, to be administered by the State Department, to support the programs established by this bill and other related activities.

U.S. government assistance for democracy programs shall not be subject to the prior approval of any foreign government.

The bill also protects the identities of implementing partners of certain State Department, USAID, and NED assistance programs in countries that are undemocratic or have engaged in gross violations of civil and political rights, including by exempting the names of partners for democracy programs in such countries from Freedom of Information Act requests.

The President must report to Congress a comprehensive strategy to promote democracy abroad.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Tom MalinowskiD-NJ-7Sponsor

Democrats · 35

Republicans · 2

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Aug 12, 2022Introduced in House
  2. Aug 12, 2022Introduced in House
  3. Aug 12, 2022 · HouseReferred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 9, 2026 · loaded Oct 9, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.