[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2939 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2939

 To provide the highly indebted poor countries with relief from debts 
     owed to the International Monetary Fund, to end United States 
  participation in and support for the Enhanced Structural Adjustment 
  Facility of the International Monetary Fund, and to require certain 
 conditions to be met before the International Monetary Fund may sell 
                     gold, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 1999

  Mr. Saxton (for himself and Mr. Kucinich) introduced the following 
  bill; which was referred to the Committee on Banking and Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide the highly indebted poor countries with relief from debts 
     owed to the International Monetary Fund, to end United States 
  participation in and support for the Enhanced Structural Adjustment 
  Facility of the International Monetary Fund, and to require certain 
 conditions to be met before the International Monetary Fund may sell 
                     gold, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Debt Relief and IMF Reform Act of 
1999''.

SEC. 2. CONDITIONS OF APPROVING GOLD SALES BY THE INTERNATIONAL 
              MONETARY FUND.

    Section 5 of the Bretton Woods Agreements Act (22 U.S.C. 286c) is 
amended by adding at the end the following: ``No director appointed to 
represent the United States at the Fund shall vote for any proposal to 
sell or otherwise convert or liquidate gold, unless--
            ``(1) the Congress has enacted a joint resolution 
        authorizing the approval of the proposal;
            ``(2)(A) the Fund has canceled all debts owed to the Fund 
        by the countries eligible for debt relief under the Heavily 
        Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Haiti; and
            ``(B) the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation 
        with the Comptroller General, demonstrates to the Congress that 
        there is no other feasible way to finance the cancellation of 
        such debts, and, if the Comptroller General does not concur, 
        explains to the Congress why any other method of financing 
        suggested by the Comptroller General is not feasible;
            ``(3) the most recent operational budget of the Fund has 
        been published, with any information that could disrupt 
        financial markets or affect adversely the national security of 
        any country redacted, and the publicly available financial 
        statements of the Fund are reorganized and restated in a manner 
        consistent with the Fund's code of good practices, and with the 
        principles of transparency and accountability;
            ``(4) the Congress has enacted a joint resolution 
        certifying that the Fund is in full compliance with the 
        conditions imposed or required to be imposed by title VI of the 
        Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs 
        Appropriations Act, 1999 (as contained in section 101(d) of 
        division A of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency 
        Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 (Public Law 105-277));
            ``(5) the proposal is--
                    ``(A) to sell any gold held by the Fund on the 
                effective date of the Second Amendment to the Articles 
                of Agreement of the Fund;
                    ``(B) only to the member countries that were member 
                countries on August 31, 1975, and Papua New Guinea, and 
                that agree to purchase the gold;
                    ``(C) in proportion to the quotas of such countries 
                in the Fund on August 31, 1975;
                    ``(D) in exchange for the currencies of such 
                countries; and
                    ``(E) at a price of SDR 35 per fine ounce;
            ``(6) the interest accruing on any investment of the 
        residual proceeds to the Fund of the sale will be used for the 
        provision of debt relief for such countries without conditions; 
        and
            ``(7) the official budget of the United States Government 
        displays the costs of United States participation in the Fund, 
        in accordance with the guidelines provided in the President's 
        Commission on Budget Concepts.''.

SEC. 3. END OF UNITED STATES PARTICIPATION IN AND SUPPORT FOR THE 
              ENHANCED STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT FACILITY OF THE 
              INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND.

    (a) Prohibition on Future Funding.--No officer, employee, or agent 
of the United States may, directly or indirectly, provide any thing of 
value to the International Monetary Fund for the purpose of providing 
resources to the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility or other 
concessional lending facility of the International Monetary Fund.
    (b) Veto of Use of Available Funds.--Section 5 of the Bretton Woods 
Agreements Act (22 U.S.C. 286c) is further amended by adding at the end 
the following: ``The director appointed to represent the United States 
at the Fund shall use every effort to terminate the Enhanced Structural 
Adjustment Facility of the Fund within one year after the date of the 
enactment of this sentence. No director appointed to represent the 
United States at the Fund shall vote for any proposal to use resources 
of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility of the Fund for any 
purpose, except for a proposal to abolish the Facility, use such 
resources for debt relief, and return any resources remaining after 
such use to the General Resources of the Fund.''.

SEC. 4. NO APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND UNTIL THE 
              INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND HAS CANCELLED ALL DEBTS OWED 
              TO THE FUND BY THE HEAVILY INDEBTED POOR COUNTRIES AND BY 
              HAITI.

    Section 5 of the Bretton Woods Agreements Act (22 U.S.C. 286c) is 
further amended by adding at the end the following: ``No amounts may be 
appropriated for payment to the Fund until the Fund has cancelled all 
debts owed to the Fund by the countries eligible for debt relief under 
the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Haiti, and 
has financed such debt cancellation from ongoing operations, 
procedures, and accounts of the Fund established as of the end of the 
most recent fiscal year.''.

SEC. 5. CONDITIONS OF APPROVING QUOTA INCREASE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL 
              MONETARY FUND.

    Section 5 of the Bretton Woods Agreements Act (22 U.S.C. 286c) is 
further amended by adding at the end the following: ``No governor or 
alternate appointed to represent the United States at the International 
Monetary Fund shall vote for any proposal for any quota increase for 
the International Monetary Fund, unless, before the proposal was made, 
the Congress received notice of the proposal and the position of the 
Executive Branch on the proposal, and the Congress has enacted a joint 
resolution authorizing the approval of the proposal.''.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect 60 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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