1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Global Fragility Act of 2019 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) According to the United Nations, an unprecedented 68.5 million people around the world, the highest level ever recorded, are currently forcibly displaced from their homes. (2) According to the World Bank, violence and violent conflict are now the leading causes of displacement and food insecurity worldwide, driving 80 percent of humanitarian needs, with the same conflicts accounting for the majority of forcibly displaced persons every year since 1991. (3) According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, violence containment costs the global economy $14.76 trillion a year, or 12.4 percent of the world’s GDP. (4) Violence and violent conflict underpin many of the United States Government’s key national security challenges. Notably, violent conflicts allow for environments in which terrorist organizations recruit and thrive, while the combination of violence, corruption, poverty, poor governance, and underdevelopment often enables transnational gangs and criminal networks to wreak havoc and commit atrocities worldwide. (5) According to research by the University of Maryland and University of Pittsburgh, exposure to violence increases support for violence and violent extremism. Research increasingly finds exposure to violence as a predictor of future participation in violence, including violent extremism. (6) United States foreign policy and assistance efforts in highly violent and fragile states remain governed by an outdated patchwork of authorities that prioritize responding to immediate needs rather than solving the problems that cause them. (7) Lessons learned over the past 20 years, documented by the 2013 Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Lessons Learned Study, the 2016 Fragility Study Group report, and the 2018 Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Lessons Learned Study on Stabilization, show that effective, sustained United States efforts to reduce violence and