[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2537 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2537

 To amend the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to assure that the United 
      States is consistent with other G-7 countries in evaluating 
  environmental concerns relating to projects to be financed, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 1 (legislative day, September 29), 1998

 Mr. Murkowski introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to assure that the United 
      States is consistent with other G-7 countries in evaluating 
  environmental concerns relating to projects to be financed, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. DEVELOPMENT OF CONSISTENT ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Agreement.--It is the sense of Congress that--
                    (A) consistent with the objectives of section 
                2(b)(1)(A) of the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 (12 
                U.S.C. 635(b)(1)(A)), the Board of Directors of the 
                Export-Import Bank shall seek to reach an international 
                agreement with the export financing agencies of all the 
                G-7 countries regarding the environmental policies and 
                procedures to be used in financing projects; and
                    (B) before such agreement is reached, the Board of 
                Directors shall, on an annual basis, report to the 
                appropriate committees of Congress regarding the 
                Board's actions in obtaining the agreement.
            (2) Report.--The report required by paragraph (1)(B) shall 
        include a summary of projects financed by other G-7 projects 
        that do not meet the Bank's environmental policies and 
        procedures.
    (b) Definitions of G-7.--For purposes of this section, the term 
``G-7'' means the group consisting of France, Germany, Japan, the 
United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Italy, established in 
September 1985, to facilitate economic cooperation among the seven 
major non-Communist economic powers.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND PROCEDURES.

    Section 11(a) of the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 (12 U.S.C. 
635i-5(a)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), by striking the period and inserting 
        the following: ``, except that the Board of Directors may not 
        withhold financing from a project under this subsection if the 
        government of any G-7 country is providing (or has indicated 
        approval to provide) financing of the project and such 
        financing is not conditioned on meeting the environmental 
        policies and procedures of the Bank.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(3) Definition of g-7.--For purposes of this subsection, 
        the term `G-7' means the group consisting of France, Germany, 
        Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and 
        Italy, established in September 1985, to facilitate economic 
        cooperation among the seven major non-Communist economic 
        powers.''.
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