[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2243 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2243

To restrict United States assistance for certain reconstruction efforts 
in the Balkans region of Europe to United States-produced articles and 
                               services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 16, 1999

  Mr. Hefley introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To restrict United States assistance for certain reconstruction efforts 
in the Balkans region of Europe to United States-produced articles and 
                               services.

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

SECTION 1. RESTRICTION ON UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE FOR CERTAIN 
              RECONSTRUCTION EFFORTS IN THE BALKANS REGION.

    (a) Prohibition.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in subsection (b), no 
        part of any United States assistance furnished for 
        reconstruction efforts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 
        or any contiguous country, on account of the armed conflict or 
        atrocities that have occurred in the Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia since March 24, 1999, may consist of, or be used for 
        the procurement of, any article produced outside the United 
        States or any service provided by a foreign person.
            (2) Determinations of foreign produced articles.--In the 
        application of paragraph (1), determinations of whether an 
        article is produced outside the United States or whether a 
        service is provided by a foreign person should be made 
        consistent with the standards utilized by the Bureau of 
        Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce in its United 
        States balance of payments statistical summary with respect to 
        comparable determinations.
    (b) Exception.--Subsection (a) shall not apply if doing so would 
require the procurement of any article or service that is prohibitively 
expensive or unavailable.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Article.--The term ``article'' includes any 
        agricultural commodity, steel, construction material, 
        communications equipment, construction machinery, farm 
        machinery, or petrochemical refinery equipment.
            (2) Federal republic of yugoslavia.--The term ``Federal 
        Republic of Yugoslavia'' means the Federal Republic of 
        Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and includes Kosovo.
            (3) Foreign person.--The term ``foreign person'' means any 
        foreign national, including any foreign corporation, 
        partnership, other legal entity, organization, or association 
        that is beneficially owned by foreign nationals or controlled 
        in fact by foreign nationals.
            (4) Produced.--The term ``produced'', with respect to an 
        item, includes any item mined, manufactured, made, assembled, 
        grown, or extracted.
            (5) Service.--The term ``service'' includes any 
        engineering, construction, telecommunications, or financial 
        service.
            (6) Steel.--The term ``steel'' includes the following 
        categories of steel products: semifinished, plates, sheets and 
        strips, wire rods, wire and wire products, rail type products, 
        bars, structural shapes and units, pipes and tubes, iron ore, 
        and coke products.
            (7) United states assistance.--The term ``United States 
        assistance'' means any grant, loan, financing, in-kind 
        assistance, or any other assistance of any kind.
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