[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 605 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 605
To amend the Special Drawing Rights Act in order to strengthen
congressional oversight with respect to allocations of Special Drawing
Rights by the International Monetary Fund, and to prohibit such
allocations for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of
terrorism without congressional authorization, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 27, 2023
Mr. Hill (for himself, Mr. Barr, and Mr. Huizenga) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial
Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Special Drawing Rights Act in order to strengthen
congressional oversight with respect to allocations of Special Drawing
Rights by the International Monetary Fund, and to prohibit such
allocations for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of
terrorism without congressional authorization, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Special Drawing Rights Oversight Act
of 2023''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) The allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) creates unconditional
liquidity for IMF member countries.
(2) According to article XVIII of the Articles of Agreement
of the IMF, allocations of SDRs ``shall seek to meet the long-
term global need'' in reserve assets.
(3) SDRs are allocated in proportion to the quotas of IMF
members, such that the G20 alone is entitled to approximately
two-thirds of a general allocation. At the same time, the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has swap line
arrangements with the central banks of eight G20 members,
including the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the
Bank of England, for the purpose of providing sufficient
liquidity.
(4) The size of SDR allocations has expanded dramatically,
rising from 9,300,000,000 SDRs in 1970-1972, to 12,100,000,000
SDRs in 1979-1981, to 204,000,000,000 SDRs in 2009, with
proposals for a new, unilateral allocation that bypasses
congressional authorization in an amount of approximately
450,000,000,000 SDRs.
(5) Under current law, the Secretary of the Treasury is
able to bypass Congress and approve an allocation of SDRs in a
manner that provides unconditional liquidity in the following
approximate amounts: $41,700,000,000 to the People's Republic
of China; $17,600,000,000 to the Russian Federation;
$4,900,000,000 to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and
$5,000,000,000 to Venezuela. In addition, current law permits
allocations in these amounts to be made in successive years
that span two basic periods.
(6) In the 98th Congress, the House of Representatives
passed the bipartisan International Recovery and Financial
Stability Act, which would have prohibited new allocations of
SDRs without congressional authorization.
SEC. 3. STRENGTHENING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT.
Section 6 of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 U.S.C. 286q) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by striking ``each basic period'' and inserting
``any 10-year period''; and
(B) by inserting ``25 percent of'' before ``the
United States quota''; and
(2) in subsection (b)--
(A) by inserting ``, or consent to or acquiesce in
such an allocation,'' before ``without consultations'';
(B) by striking ``90'' and inserting ``180''; and
(C) by inserting ``Chairman and ranking minority
members of'' before ``the appropriate subcommittees''.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ALLOCATIONS FOR PERPETRATORS OF GENOCIDE AND
STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL
AUTHORIZATION.
Section 6(b) of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 U.S.C. 286q(b))
is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(3) Unless Congress by law authorizes such action, neither the
President nor any person or agency shall on behalf of the United States
vote to allocate Special Drawing Rights under article XVIII, sections 2
and 3, of the Articles of Agreement of the Fund to a member country of
the Fund, if the President of the United States has found that the
government of the member country--
``(A) has committed genocide at any time during the 10-year
period ending with the date of the vote; or
``(B) has repeatedly provided support for acts of
international terrorism.''.
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