For the past several years several U.S. nonprofits, including the Charity & Security Network, have worked with Congressional staff to encourage oversight of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the Department of Treasury, where charities have had serious problems with the process for licensing charitable programs that would be otherwise prohibited by sanctions law. The efforts paid off in January 2014 when the Omnibus appropriations bill included language that requires Treasury to report to the House Committee on Appropriations on its plans for reducing delays in the license application process. The report is due in March. The language says:
General Licenses for Humanitarian Assistance.--The
reportedly slow response of the Department of the Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to urgent requests in
2011 for a General License from humanitarian non-governmental
organizations seeking to provide aid to famine victims in
south central Somalia is an ongoing concern. Not later than
45 days after enactment of this Act, OFAC shall submit to the
Committees on Appropriations recommendations for reducing
response times for such applications.
It is online here. Search for the word OFAC and it will come up.