North American Development Bank Improvement Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 132 To provide for a general capital increase for the North American Development Bank, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 3, 2019 Mr. CUELLAR (for himself, Mr. HURD of Texas, and Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Fi- nancial Services A BILL To provide for a general capital increase for the North American Development Bank, 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. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘North American Devel- 4 opment Bank Improvement Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. GENERAL CAPITAL INCREASE. 6 Part 2 of subtitle D of title V of Public Law 103– 7 182 (22 U.S.C. 290m et seq.) is amended by adding at 8 the end the following: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Jan 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H132.IH H132 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 132 IH ‘‘SEC. 547. FIRST CAPITAL INCREASE. 1 ‘‘(a) SUBSCRIPTION AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary of 2 the Treasury is authorized to subscribe on behalf of the 3 United States to, and make payment for, 150,000 addi- 4 tional shares of the capital stock of the Bank. 5 ‘‘(b) LIMITATION.—Any subscription by the United 6 States to the capital stock of the Bank shall be effective 7 only to such extent and in such amounts as are provided 8 in advance in appropriations Acts.’’. 9 SEC. 3. POLICY GOALS. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—In addition to projects within the 11 mission and scope of the North American Development 12 Bank on the day before the date of the enactment of this 13 Act and pursuant to section 2 of article II of the Charter, 14 the Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the representa- 15 tives of the United States to the Board of Directors of 16 the Bank to use the voice and vote of the United States 17 to support the financing of projects related to— 18 (1) environmental infrastructure relating to 19 water pollution, wastewater treatment, water con- 20 servation, municipal solid waste, and related mat- 21 ters; 22 (2) natural gas, including natural gas pipelines 23 and combined cycle power plants, with major empha- 24 sis on cross-border energy distribution and consump- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Jan 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H132.IH H132 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 132 IH tion and the energy security of the United States 1 and Mexico; and 2 (3) the expansion or new construction of inter- 3 national land border crossings to help facilitate the 4 flow of goods and people across the international 5 land border between the United States and Mexico 6 while reducing wait times at border crossings and 7 improving air quality by reducing pollution related 8 to vehicular and commercial traffic. 9 (b) CHARTER DEFINED.—In this section, the term 10 ‘‘Charter’’ means the Agreement Concerning the Estab- 11 lishment of a Border Environment Cooperation Commis- 12 sion and a North American Development Bank, signed at 13 Washington and Mexico November 16 and 18, 1993, and 14 entered into force January 1, 1994 (TIAS 12516), be- 15 tween the United States and Mexico. 16 SEC. 4. EFFICIENCIES AND STREAMLINING. 17 The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the rep- 18 resentatives of the United States to the Board of Directors 19 of the North American Development Bank to use the voice 20 and vote of the United States to seek to require the Bank 21 to develop and implement efficiency improvements to 22 streamline and accelerate the project certification and fi- 23 nancing process, including through initiatives such as sin- 24 gle certifications for revolving facilities, programmatic cer- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Jan 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H132.IH H132 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 132 IH tification of similar groups of small projects, expansion of 1 internal authority to approve qualified projects below cer- 2 tain monetary thresholds, and expedited certification for 3 public sector projects subject to lender bidding processes. 4 SEC. 5. PERFORMANCE MEASURES. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury 6 shall direct the representatives of the United States to the 7 Board of Directors of the North American Development 8 Bank to use the voice and vote of the United States to 9 seek to require the Bank to develop performance measures 10 that— 11 (1) demonstrate how projects and financing ap- 12 proved by the Bank are meeting the Bank’s mission 13 and providing added value to the region near the 14 international land border between the United States 15 and Mexico; and 16 (2) are reviewed and updated not less fre- 17 quently than annually. 18 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Secretary of the 19 Treasury shall submit to Congress, with the submission 20 to Congress of the budget of the President for a fiscal 21 year under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States 22 Code, a report on progress in imposing the performance 23 measures described in subsection (a). 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Jan 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H132.IH H132 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS