To prohibit the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from awarding grants to entities that fund or support gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, and for other purposes.

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5493 To prohibit the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from awarding grants to entities that fund or support gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 19, 2019 Mr. BISHOP of Utah introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources A BILL To prohibit the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service from awarding grants to entities that fund or support gross violations of internationally recog- nized human rights, 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. INTERNATIONAL CONSERVATION GRANT RE- 3 STRICTIONS. 4 (a) CERTIFICATION.—The Director may not award a 5 covered grant to a covered recipient unless such recipient 6 certifies that it will meet the requirements described in 7 subsection (b). 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 5493 IH (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements described in 1 this subsection are as follows: 2 (1) CERTIFICATION.—A covered recipient may 3 only award funds to a subgrantee if such subgrantee 4 certifies that it will meet the requirements described 5 in this subsection. 6 (2) PROHIBITION.—A covered recipient may not 7 use funds from a covered grant to fund or support 8 a prohibited entity. 9 (3) REPORTING.—A covered recipient shall re- 10 port to the Director any credible allegation of a 11 gross violation of internationally recognized human 12 rights by any entity such recipient has funded or 13 supported within 30 days of the date on which such 14 recipient knew or should have known of such allega- 15 tion. 16 (4) CEASE FUNDING.—A covered recipient that 17 reports a credible allegation under paragraph (3) to 18 the Director shall, not more than 30 days after the 19 date of such reporting, cease funding or supporting 20 the prohibited entity alleged to have committed such 21 violation. 22 (c) PENALTIES.—The Director shall apply the fol- 23 lowing penalties to a covered recipient or successor to such 24 recipient that fails to meet the requirements of this Act: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 5493 IH (1) The Director may not award a single source 1 award of a covered grant to a covered recipient or 2 successor to such recipient that has violated a provi- 3 sion of subsection (b). 4 (2) The Director may not award a covered 5 grant to a covered recipient or successor to such re- 6 cipient that violated subsection (b)(3) for a 3-year 7 period beginning on the later of— 8 (A) the date of the violation; or 9 (B) the date on which the Director became 10 aware of such violation. 11 (3) The Director may not award a covered 12 grant to a covered recipient or successor to such re- 13 cipient that violated subsection (b)(4) for a 5-year 14 period beginning on the later of— 15 (A) the date of the violation; or 16 (B) the date on which the Director became 17 aware of such violation. 18 (4) In addition to any penalties under para- 19 graphs (1) through (3), the Director may not award 20 a covered grant to a covered recipient or successor 21 to such recipient that has violated any provision of 22 this Act unless such recipient paid back any funds 23 from the grant under which such recipient received 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 5493 IH funds which were used in a manner that violated 1 subsection (b). 2 (5) The Director shall report a covered recipi- 3 ent that violated a provision of subsection (b) to the 4 Department of Justice. 5 (d) HIGH-RISK AREAS.— 6 (1) WAIVER REQUIRED.—The Director may not 7 award a covered grant with respect to a high-risk 8 country unless the recipient of such grant has re- 9 ceived a waiver under paragraph (2). 10 (2) WAIVER REQUIREMENTS.—The Director 11 may issue a waiver to operate in a high-risk country 12 to an applicant that the Director determines has 13 taken sufficient measures to prevent the violation of 14 this Act. In making such a determination, the Direc- 15 tor shall require the applicant to— 16 (A) describe the safeguards such applicant 17 employs to protect human rights; 18 (B) describe the accountability such appli- 19 cant employs to ensure proper use of funds; 20 (C) provide any training materials used by 21 the organization with respect to protecting 22 human rights; and 23 (D) provide such other information as the 24 Director determines appropriate. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 5493 IH (3) AUDITS.—The Secretary of the Interior 1 shall perform, or cause an independent third party 2 to perform, audits of any recipient that receives 3 grant funds from the Director issued with respect to 4 a high-risk country. 5 (e) RISK ANALYSIS.—In performing a risk assess- 6 ment analysis for a covered grant, the Director shall in- 7 clude the occurrence of human rights violations as a factor 8 in such analysis. 9 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act: 10 (1) COVERED GRANT.—The term ‘‘covered 11 grant’’ means a grant awarded by the Director 12 under which funds will be expended outside the 13 United States, including grants issued pursuant to— 14 (A) section 2101 of the African Elephant 15 Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 4211); 16 (B) section 4 of the Great Ape Conserva- 17 tion Act of 2000 (16 U.S.C. 6303); 18 (C) section 4 of the Marine Turtle Con- 19 servation Act of 2004 (16 U.S.C. 6603); and 20 (D) section 5 of the Rhinoceros and Tiger 21 Conservation Act of 1994 (16 U.S.C. 5304). 22 (2) COVERED RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘covered 23 recipient’’ means any entity that is a grantee, sub- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 5493 IH grantee, or applicant with respect to a covered 1 grant. 2 (3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 3 the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife 4 Service. 5 (4) GROSS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONALLY 6 RECOGNIZED HUMAN RIGHTS.—The term ‘‘gross vio- 7 lations of internationally recognized human rights’’ 8 has the meaning given such term in section 9 502B(d)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 10 (22 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)). 11 (5) HIGH-RISK COUNTRY.—The term ‘‘high-risk 12 country’’ means a country with respect to which the 13 most recent report issued pursuant to section 116(d) 14 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 15 2151n(d)) includes reports of extrajudicial, arbi- 16 trary, or unlawful killings by security forces. 17 (6) PROHIBITED ENTITY.—The term ‘‘prohib- 18 ited entity’’ means a person or entity that is credibly 19 alleged to have committed a gross violation of inter- 20 nationally recognized human rights— 21 (A) during the 10-year period ending on 22 the date of issuance of the relevant covered 23 grant; or 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 5493 IH (B) after the date of issuance of the rel- 1 evant covered grant. 2 (7) SUCCESSOR.—The term ‘‘successor’’ means 3 an entity that the Director determines is substan- 4 tially owned by persons who owned a prohibited enti- 5 ty at the time such entity became a prohibited enti- 6 ty. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:47 Dec 29, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5493.IH H5493 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS