[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 160 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 160

    To prohibit the rescheduling or forgiveness of any outstanding 
   bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government of the 
 Russian Federation until the President certifies to the Congress that 
the Government of the Russian Federation has ceased all its operations 
at, removed all personnel from, and permanently closed the intelligence 
                       facility at Lourdes, Cuba.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2001

  Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for himself, Mr. Goss, Mr. Gilman, Mr. DeLay, Mr. 
  Smith of New Jersey, and Mr. Diaz-Balart) introduced the following 
  bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To prohibit the rescheduling or forgiveness of any outstanding 
   bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government of the 
 Russian Federation until the President certifies to the Congress that 
the Government of the Russian Federation has ceased all its operations 
at, removed all personnel from, and permanently closed the intelligence 
                       facility at Lourdes, Cuba.

    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 ``Russian-American Trust and 
Cooperation Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Government of the Russian Federation maintains an 
        agreement with the Government of Cuba which allows Russia to 
        operate an intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba.
            (2) The Secretary of Defense has formally expressed 
        concerns to the Congress regarding the espionage complex at 
        Lourdes, Cuba, and its use as a base for intelligence 
        activities directed against the United States.
            (3) The Secretary of Defense, referring to a 1998 Defense 
        Intelligence Agency assessment, has reported that the Russian 
        Federation leases the Lourdes facility for an estimated 
        $100,000,000 to $300,000,000 a year.
            (4) It has been reported that the Lourdes facility is the 
        largest such complex operated by the Russian Federation and its 
        intelligence service outside the region of the former Soviet 
        Union.
            (5) The Lourdes facility is reported to cover a 28 square-
        mile area with over 1,500 Russian engineers, technicians, and 
        military personnel working at the base.
            (6) Experts familiar with the Lourdes facility have 
        reportedly confirmed that the base has multiple groups of 
        tracking dishes and its own satellite system, with some groups 
        used to intercept telephone calls, faxes, and computer 
        communications, in general, and with other groups used to cover 
        targeted telephones and devices.
            (7) News sources have reported that the predecessor regime 
        to the Government of the Russian Federation had obtained 
        sensitive information about United States military operations 
        during Operation Desert Storm through the Lourdes facility.
            (8) Former United States National Security Agency officials 
        have been quoted describing the Lourdes facility as an 
        ``intelligence cornucopia'' which lies within the ``footprint'' 
        of every United States communications satellite.
            (9) Public reports relating to the Lourdes facility state 
        that Defense Intelligence Agency officials testified to the 
        Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 1996 that ``while 
        commercial intelligence [gathered at the facility] is the top 
        priority, it is not the only one . . . Personal information 
        about U.S. citizens in private and government sectors is also 
        snatched from the airwaves and used by Russian intelligence to 
        identify promising recruits in these sectors.''.
            (10) It has been reported that the operational significance 
        of the Lourdes facility has grown dramatically since February 
        7, 1996, when then Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, issued an 
        order demanding that the Russian intelligence community 
        increase its gathering of United States and other Western 
        economic and trade secrets.
            (11) It has been reported that the Government of the 
        Russian Federation is estimated to have spent in excess of 
        $3,000,000,000 in the operation and modernization of the 
        Lourdes facility.
            (12) Colonel General Mikhail Kolenik, Russia's current 
        chief of staff, has affirmed during his visits to the Lourdes 
        facility that this espionage base remains critical to the 
        intelligence needs of the Russian Federation.
            (13) The December 2000 visit of Russian President Putin to 
        Cuba was described by United States analysts as a ``diplomatic 
        offensive'' to strengthen and expand Russia's ties with its 
        former satellite in Latin America.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON BILATERAL DEBT RESCHEDULING AND FORGIVENESS FOR 
              THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

    (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the 
President--
            (1) shall not reschedule or forgive any outstanding 
        bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government of 
        the Russian Federation, and
            (2) shall instruct the United States representative to the 
        Paris Club of official creditors to use the voice and vote of 
        the United States to oppose rescheduling or forgiveness of any 
        outstanding bilateral debt owed by the Government of the 
        Russian Federation,
until the President certifies to the Congress that the Government of 
the Russian Federation has ceased all its operations at, removed all 
personnel from, and permanently closed the intelligence facility at 
Lourdes, Cuba.
    (b) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of subsection 
(a)(1) with respect to rescheduling of outstanding bilateral debt if--
            (1) the President determines that such waiver is necessary 
        to the national interests of the United States; and
            (2) not less than 10 days before the waiver is to take 
        effect, the President transmits to the Committee on 
        International Relations of the House of Representatives and the 
        Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a written 
        certification that contains the determination made pursuant to 
        paragraph (1) and the reasons therefor.
                                 <all>