No Dollars for Dictators Act of 2021

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2109 To prohibit allocations of Special Drawing Rights at the International Mone- tary Fund for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of terrorism without congressional authorization. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 17, 2021 Mr. KENNEDY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To prohibit allocations of Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund for perpetrators of geno- cide and state sponsors of terrorism without congres- sional authorization. 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 ‘‘No Dollars for Dic- 4 tators Act of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress makes the following findings: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:33 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2109.IS S2109 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 2109 IS (1) The President has agreed to a general allo- 1 cation of Special Drawing Rights at the Inter- 2 national Monetary Fund totaling $650,000,000,000 3 without consent from Congress. 4 (2) Special Drawing Rights are distributed ac- 5 cording to a country’s economic standing in the 6 global economy, allowing the wealthiest countries in 7 the world to receive the most Special Drawing 8 Rights of all members of the International Monetary 9 Fund. 10 (3) The President’s justification for supporting 11 the proposed allocation is to allow low-income coun- 12 tries to exchange their Special Drawing Rights for 13 currency to fund efforts to combat the COVID–19 14 pandemic. 15 (4) Under the proposed allocation of 16 $650,000,000,000 Special Drawing Rights— 17 (A) Group of Twenty countries, the largest 18 economies in the world, would receive the bulk 19 of the Special Drawing Rights, totaling 20 $426,000,000,000; and 21 (B) only 3 percent, or $21,000,000,000, 22 would be given to the intended recipients, the 23 poorest countries in the world. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:33 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2109.IS S2109 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 2109 IS (5) The President recommends a Special Draw- 1 ing Rights allocation that sends tens of billions of 2 dollars in aid to dictators, including Xi Jinping, 3 Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani, Bashar al-Assad, 4 and Nicola´s Maduro. 5 (6) Under the proposed allocation, the People’s 6 Republic of China, a known perpetrator of genocide, 7 stands to receive $22,000,000,000, which is more 8 than the $21,000,000,000 all the poorest countries 9 combined will receive. 10 (7) Countries designated as state sponsors of 11 terrorism would also receive Special Drawing Rights, 12 with $3,500,000,000 going to Iran and 13 $900,000,000 going to Syria. 14 (8) The notion that Special Drawing Rights are 15 a no-cost way to help poor countries procure 16 COVID–19 vaccines is demonstrably false, and fur- 17 ther would require the United States to issue debt 18 and pay interest on that debt in order to cover the 19 loans issued through Special Drawing Rights. 20 (9) On March 24, 2021, the Secretary of the 21 Treasury, Janet Yellen, acknowledged that a Special 22 Drawing Rights allocation comes at a cost to the 23 United States taxpayer, as the United States is fi- 24 nancially responsible for exchanging United States 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:33 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2109.IS S2109 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 2109 IS dollars in return for Special Drawing Rights pre- 1 sented to the United States. 2 (10) It is the duty of Congress to decide how 3 taxpayer dollars are used and whether or not United 4 States dollars should be exchanged for Special 5 Drawing Rights that will be awarded to dictators 6 and countries that actively oppose the national inter- 7 ests of the United States. 8 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON ALLOCATIONS OF SPECIAL DRAW- 9 ING RIGHTS AT INTERNATIONAL MONETARY 10 FUND FOR PERPETRATORS OF GENOCIDE 11 AND STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM WITH- 12 OUT CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION. 13 Section 6(b) of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 14 U.S.C. 286q(b)) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 15 lowing: 16 ‘‘(3) Unless Congress by law authorizes such action, 17 neither the President nor any person or agency shall on 18 behalf of the United States vote to allocate Special Draw- 19 ing Rights under article XVIII, sections 2 and 3, of the 20 Articles of Agreement of the Fund to a member country 21 of the Fund, if the government of the member country 22 has— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:33 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2109.IS S2109 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 2109 IS ‘‘(A) committed genocide at any time during 1 the 10-year period ending with the date of the vote; 2 or 3 ‘‘(B) been determined by the Secretary of 4 State, as of the date of the enactment of the No 5 Dollars for Dictators Act of 2021, to have repeatedly 6 provided support for acts of international terrorism, 7 for purposes of— 8 ‘‘(i) section 1754(c)(1)(A)(i) of the Export 9 Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 10 4813(c)(1)(A)(i)); 11 ‘‘(ii) section 620A of the Foreign Assist- 12 ance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 13 ‘‘(iii) section 40(d) of the Arms Export 14 Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2780(d)); or 15 ‘‘(iv) any other provision of law.’’. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:33 Jun 24, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2109.IS S2109 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS