Special Drawing Rights Oversight Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1568 To amend the Special Drawing Rights Act in order to strengthen congres- sional 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 MARCH 3, 2021 Mr. HILL (for himself, Mr. HUIZENGA, and Mr. BARR) 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 alloca- tions of Special Drawing Rights by the International Monetary Fund, and to prohibit such allocations for per- petrators of genocide and state sponsors of terrorism without congressional authorization, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Special Drawing 4 Rights Oversight Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:13 Apr 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1568.IH H1568 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1568 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 The Congress finds as follows: 2 (1) The allocation of Special Drawing Rights 3 (SDRs) through the International Monetary Fund 4 (IMF) creates unconditional liquidity for IMF mem- 5 ber countries. 6 (2) According to Article XVIII of the Articles 7 of Agreement of the IMF, allocations of SDRs ‘‘shall 8 seek to meet the long-term global need’’ in reserve 9 assets. 10 (3) SDRs are allocated in proportion to the 11 quotas of IMF members, such that the G20 alone is 12 entitled to approximately two-thirds of a general al- 13 location. At the same time, the Board of Governors 14 of the Federal Reserve System has swap line ar- 15 rangements with the central banks of eight G20 16 members, including the European Central Bank, the 17 Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England, for the 18 purpose of providing sufficient liquidity. 19 (4) The size of SDR allocations has expanded 20 dramatically, rising from 9,300,000,000 SDRs in 21 1970–1972, to 12,100,000,000 SDRs in 1979–1981, 22 to 204,000,000,000 SDRs in 2009, with proposals 23 for a new, unilateral allocation that bypasses con- 24 gressional authorization in an amount of approxi- 25 mately 450,000,000,000 SDRs. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Apr 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1568.IH H1568 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1568 IH (5) Under current law, the Secretary of the 1 Treasury is able to bypass Congress and approve an 2 allocation of SDRs in a manner that provides uncon- 3 ditional liquidity in the following approximate 4 amounts: $41,700,000,000 to the People’s Republic 5 of China; $17,600,000,000 to the Russian Federa- 6 tion; $4,900,000,000 to the Islamic Republic of 7 Iran, and $5,000,000,000 to Venezuela. In addition, 8 current law permits allocations in these amounts to 9 be made in successive years that span two basic pe- 10 riods. 11 (6) In the 98th Congress, the House of Rep- 12 resentatives passed the bipartisan International Re- 13 covery and Financial Stability Act, which would have 14 prohibited new allocations of SDRs without congres- 15 sional authorization. 16 SEC. 3. STRENGTHENING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT. 17 Section 6 of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 18 U.S.C. 286q) is amended— 19 (1) in subsection (a)— 20 (A) by striking ‘‘each basic period’’ and in- 21 serting ‘‘any 10-year period’’; and 22 (B) by inserting ‘‘25 percent of’’ before 23 ‘‘the United States quota’’; and 24 (2) in subsection (b)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Apr 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1568.IH H1568 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1568 IH (A) by inserting ‘‘, or consent to or acqui- 1 esce in such an allocation,’’ before ‘‘without 2 consultations’’; 3 (B) by striking ‘‘90’’ and inserting ‘‘180’’; 4 and 5 (C) by inserting ‘‘Chairman and ranking 6 minority members of’’ before ‘‘the appropriate 7 subcommittees’’. 8 SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ALLOCATIONS FOR PERPETRA- 9 TORS OF GENOCIDE AND STATE SPONSORS 10 OF TERRORISM WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL 11 AUTHORIZATION. 12 Section 6(b) of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 13 U.S.C. 286q(b)) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 14 lowing: 15 ‘‘(3) Unless Congress by law authorizes such action, 16 neither the President nor any person or agency shall on 17 behalf of the United States vote to allocate Special Draw- 18 ing Rights under article XVIII, sections 2 and 3, of the 19 Articles of Agreement of the Fund to a member country 20 of the Fund, if the President of the United States has 21 found that the government of the member country— 22 ‘‘(A) has committed genocide at any time dur- 23 ing the 10-year period ending with the date of the 24 vote; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Apr 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1568.IH H1568 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1568 IH ‘‘(B) has repeatedly provided support for acts 1 of international terrorism.’’. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:45 Apr 17, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1568.IH H1568 khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with BILLS