Compensation for Americans Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3882 To initiate negotiations for a bilateral agreement on compensation between the United States and the People’s Republic of China relating to the spread of the virus responsible for COVID–19, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 14, 2021 Mrs. WAGNER (for herself, Mr. GOODEN of Texas, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina, Mr. BABIN, Mr. WEBSTER of Florida, and Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Oversight and Reform, the Judiciary, Financial Services, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services, and Ways and Means, for a period to be sub- sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To initiate negotiations for a bilateral agreement on com- pensation between the United States and the People’s Republic of China relating to the spread of the virus responsible for COVID–19, and for other purposes. 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4 ‘‘Compensation for Americans Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3882 IH (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 1 this Act is as follows: 2 Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Definitions. Sec. 3. Findings. Sec. 4. Sense of Congress. Sec. 5. Statement of policy. Sec. 6. Coronavirus compensation fund. Sec. 7. Bilateral agreement on compensation between the United States and China. Sec. 8. Authorization to freeze Chinese assets. Sec. 9. Encouraging developing nations to seek compensation from China. Sec. 10. Suspension of requests made by Chinese entities to acquire United States entities under certain circumstances. Sec. 11. Prohibition on procurement of certain products from a covered foreign entity, including products intended to be included in the Stra- tegic National Stockpile. Sec. 12. Report on integrity of the United States supply chain. Sec. 13. Restriction on Federal funds to propose, finalize, implement, or en- force any rule that reconsiders or amends certain Bureau of Industry and Security rules. Sec. 14. Authorization of sanctions. Sec. 15. Export controls on certain telecommunication equipment. Sec. 16. Visa ban on researchers affiliated with the PLA. Sec. 17. Prohibition on investment of TSP I fund in China. Sec. 18. Protecting pharmaceutical access for Americans. Sec. 19. Removal of China’s designation as a developing country in inter- national bodies. Sec. 20. Protecting America from cyberattacks. SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 3 In this Act: 4 (1) CHINA.—The term ‘‘China’’ means the Peo- 5 ple’s Republic of China. 6 (2) COMPENSATION FUND.—The term ‘‘com- 7 pensation fund’’ means the Coronavirus Compensa- 8 tion Fund. 9 SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 10 Congress finds the following: 11 (1) In the early weeks of the spread of the virus 12 responsible for COVID–19, the Government of 13 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3882 IH China systematically suppressed, misrepresented, 1 and falsified information concerning such spread. 2 (2) The first reported instance of such virus 3 may have occurred on November 17, 2019, in 4 Wuhan, China. The Government of China did not 5 notify the World Health Organization that it had de- 6 tected an unknown respiratory illness until Decem- 7 ber 31, 2019. 8 (3) The Government of China violated inter- 9 national law by covering up the origins and spread 10 of such virus. 11 (4) Articles 6 and 7 of the International Health 12 Regulations of 2005 require notification to the 13 World Health Organization within 24 hours of an 14 assessment of events that may constitute a public 15 health emergency of international concern. 16 (5) The International Health Regulations re- 17 quire the World Health Organization to be notified 18 of ‘‘all relevant public health information’’ regarding 19 public health events of international concern, and for 20 information to be shared in a ‘‘timely, accurate, and 21 sufficiently detailed manner’’. 22 (6) The Government of China failed to share 23 information with the World Health Organization, 24 and embarked on a campaign to silence doctors, sci- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3882 IH entists, and whistleblowers in an attempt to mislead 1 the Chinese people and the international community 2 concerning the spread of such virus. 3 (7) On December 27, 2019, samples of the 4 virus found in hospitals in Wuhan, China, were ana- 5 lyzed and determined to be a novel coronavirus. 6 (8) The Government of China did not share 7 with the World Health Organization such determina- 8 tion concerning the novel coronavirus. 9 (9) On January 3, 2020, the Government of 10 China ordered Chinese scientists working to se- 11 quence the genome of such virus to surrender or de- 12 stroy their samples and the Government of China 13 did not publicly share the genetic sequence until 14 January 12, 2020. 15 (10) In early January, the Government of 16 China jailed eight medical professionals who sought 17 to share information relating to such virus. 18 (11) A Chinese ophthalmologist, Doctor Li 19 Wenliang, tried to warn the medical community of 20 such virus. The Government of China forced Doctor 21 Li to sign a letter stating that he made ‘‘false state- 22 ments’’ concerning such virus. Doctor Li later be- 23 came infected with such virus and died on February 24 7, 2020. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3882 IH (12) The Government of China insisted that no 1 evidence existed concerning the spread of such virus 2 through person-to-person transmission, and allowed 3 Chinese citizens to travel unimpeded, including dur- 4 ing the Lunar New Year, when travelers numbered 5 in the hundreds of millions. 6 (13) On December 31, 2019, the Government 7 of Taiwan noted the possibility that such virus could 8 spread through person-to-person transmission. Offi- 9 cials of the World Health Organization sent to 10 China did not announce that such virus could spread 11 through person-to-person transmission until January 12 22, 2020. 13 (14) The Government of China continues to 14 neutralize or eliminate actors who threaten to expose 15 the Government of China’s culpability in the spread 16 of such virus. 17 (15) Wuhan Central Hospital reprimanded Doc- 18 tor Ai Fen for sharing a picture of a patient report 19 labeled ‘‘SARS Coronavirus’’. In an interview pub- 20 lished in the Chinese magazine Ren Wu on March 21 10, 2020, Doctor Ai said, ‘‘This incident has shown 22 that everyone needs to have their own thoughts be- 23 cause someone has to step up to speak the truth.’’. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3882 IH (16) The repeated violations of the Inter- 1 national Health Regulations by the Government of 2 China caused the spread of such virus first in 3 Wuhan, China, and then worldwide. 4 (17) As of June 8, 2021, such spread resulted 5 in 173,331,478 confirmed cases and 3,735,571 6 deaths. 7 (18) As of June 8, 2021, 33,193,680 Ameri- 8 cans had been infected by such virus and 594,802 9 of those people died. 10 (19) In an October 12, 2020, issue of the Jour- 11 nal of the American Medical Association, economists 12 Lawrence Summers and David Cutler calculated 13 that such spread would cost the United States at 14 least $16 trillion. 15 (20) On October 13, 2020, the International 16 Monetary Fund estimated that such spread will cost 17 the global economy approximately $28 trillion in lost 18 economic output. 19 (21) The World Bank estimated on December 20 14, 2020, that such spread added between 88 million 21 people and 115 million people to those living in ex- 22 treme poverty and caused between 83 million people 23 and 132 million people to become undernourished. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3882 IH (22) The World Bank further predicted that 1 learning losses and higher dropout rates caused by 2 such spread would cost students an estimated $10 3 trillion in future earnings, nearly 10 percent of glob- 4 al Gross Domestic Product. 5 (23) The International Labor Organization esti- 6 mated that the spread of such virus caused an 8.8 7 percent drop in working hours globally, which is 8 equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs. 9 (24) More than 60 million Americans filed un- 10 employment claims between March and October 11 2020. 12 (25) The United States unemployment rate 13 reached 14.8 percent in April 2020, the highest rate 14 observed since 1948. 15 (26) The Congressional Budget Office predicted 16 $7.6 trillion in United States economic output would 17 be lost to the pandemic between 2021 and 2031. 18 (27) To mitigate the economic impact of such 19 spread and bolster response efforts, Congress appro- 20 priated nearly $5.3 trillion in emergency spending. 21 (28) The Congressional Budget Office more 22 than tripled its Fiscal Year 2020 Federal budget 23 deficit projection from $1 trillion in January 2020 24 to $3.3 trillion. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 3882 IH (29) If China had acted in accordance with its 1 international obligations just three weeks earlier, the 2 number of early coronavirus cases may have been 95 3 percent lower. 4 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 (1) in February 2020, the United States cor- 7 rectly designated Chinese state-owned media outlets 8 as foreign missions; 9 (2) the Secretary of State should limit to 100 10 or fewer people the total number of Chinese citizens 11 who may work for a Chinese state-owned media out- 12 let in the United States; 13 (3) such limitation may encourage China to 14 allow American journalists and other foreign inde- 15 pendent reporters to live and report in China with- 16 out threat or harassment by China; and 17 (4) United States entities should avoid sup- 18 porting or spreading propaganda from China by re- 19 viewing the policies of such entities relating to media 20 advertisements created by China or advertising in 21 media outlets owned or operated by China. 22 SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 23 It is the policy of the United States to seek com- 24 pensation from China for intentionally concealing and dis- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 3882 IH torting information concerning the spread of the virus re- 1 sponsible for COVID–19 resulting in— 2 (1) the avoidable loss of life, health, or property 3 of citizens of the United States; and 4 (2) the damage to the national economy of the 5 United States. 6 SEC. 6. CORONAVIRUS COMPENSATION FUND. 7 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 8 Treasury a compensation fund to be known as the 9 Coronavirus Compensation Fund. 10 (b) DEPOSIT OF FUNDS.—There shall be deposited 11 into the compensation fund— 12 (1) the amount agreed upon, if any, between 13 China and the United States relating to the bilateral 14 agreement on compensation initiated under section 15 7(a) of this Act; and 16 (2) the amount, if any, collected from the freez- 17 ing of assets belonging to China under section 8. 18 SEC. 7. BILATERAL AGREEMENT ON COMPENSATION BE- 19 TWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA. 20 (a) NEGOTIATIONS.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 22 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 23 of State shall enter into negotiations with China 24 concerning a bilateral agreement on compensation. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 3882 IH (2) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The initiation of ne- 1 gotiations required under paragraph (1) shall relate 2 to— 3 (A) the efforts of China to intentionally 4 distort and conceal information concerning the 5 spread of the virus responsible for COVID–19; 6 and 7 (B) the avoidable loss of life, health, or 8 property of citizens of the United States and 9 the damage to the national economy of the 10 United States caused by the actions of China 11 described in subparagraph (A). 12 (b) DEPOSIT OF FUNDS.—Any money received relat- 13 ing to negotiations initiated under paragraph (1) shall be 14 deposited into the compensation fund established under 15 section 6(a). 16 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION TO FREEZE CHINESE ASSETS. 17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall use his au- 18 thorities under the International Emergency Economic 19 Powers Act to freeze or block any Chinese asset subject 20 to the jurisdiction of the United States in order to reach 21 a bilateral agreement on compensation with China. With 22 the consent of China under the bilateral agreement on 23 compensation, the President may deposit all or some of 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:34 Jul 14, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3882.IH H3882 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 3882 IH these frozen funds into the compensation fund established 1 under section 6(a). 2 (b) PUBLIC REPOSITORY OF CERTAIN ASSETS.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 30 days after 4 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 5 of Treasury shall publish online a public repository 6 described in paragraph (2). 7 (2) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The public reposi- 8 tory described in this paragraph shall include infor- 9 mation relating to the following: 10 (A) Chinese state-owned entities in the 11 United States. 12 (B) Chinese entities financed, directed, or 13 controlled by the Government of China or the 14 Chinese Communist Party. 15 (C) United States entities financed, di- 16 rected, or controlled by the Government of 17 China or the Chinese Communist Party. 18 (3) SELF-REPORT.— 19 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara- 20 graph (B), not later than 60 da [Text truncated for display. 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