[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5624 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5624

   To require the Secretary of State to take such actions as may be 
 necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International 
                  Expositions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 5, 2016

 Mr. Emmer of Minnesota (for himself and Ms. McCollum) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of State to take such actions as may be 
 necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International 
                  Expositions, 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 ``U.S. Wants to Compete for a World 
Expo Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) is a 
        treaty-based organization, with 169 member-states, responsible 
        for governing World Fairs and International Expositions since 
        the signing of the Convention Concerning International 
        Expositions on November 22, 1928. The United States is a party 
        to the Convention.
            (2) The United States withdrew from membership in the BIE 
        in 2001 in response to congressional limitations on the 
        expenditure of funds for United States participation.
            (3) The United States and other non-members of the BIE face 
        significantly higher costs to host and to participate in 
        international expositions because of their non-member status.
            (4) The bid of a United States city, region, or State to 
        host an international exposition is unlikely to be successful 
        if the United States is not a member of the BIE, because BIE 
        rules require that members receive a preference over non-
        members for all such bids.
            (5) Since the United States was previously a member of the 
        BIE, and has already acceded to the Convention, no formal 
        congressional action is necessary for the United States to 
        rejoin the BIE.
            (6) The United States regularly enters into international 
        legal agreements with other countries or international 
        organizations, that are binding on the United States as a 
        matter of international law. Under United States law, such 
        agreements may take the form of treaties or executive 
        agreements.
            (7) The President may enter into an international agreement 
        on matters within his constitutional authority to the extent 
        that the agreement is not inconsistent with enacted 
        legislation. The United States is currently a party to 
        approximately 900 treaties and 5,000 executive agreements.
            (8) Section 1(a) of Public Law 91-269 (22 U.S.C. 2801(a)) 
        found that ``international expositions . . . have a significant 
        impact on the economic growth of the region surrounding the 
        exposition and . . . are important instruments of national 
        policy''.
            (9) Although section 204 of the Admiral James W. Nance and 
        Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 
        2000 and 2001 (22 U.S.C. 2452b) prohibits ``the expenditure of 
        funds appropriated to the Department of State for a United 
        States pavilion or other major exhibit at any international 
        exposition or world's fair registered by the Bureau of 
        International Expositions in excess of amounts expressly 
        authorized and appropriated for such purposes'', the section 
        neither prohibits nor restricts the United States from being a 
        member of the BIE.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) there are no statutory provisions that prohibit the 
        United States from rejoining the BIE;
            (2) the United States should rejoin the BIE immediately to 
        promote public diplomacy, global branding, and tourism to the 
        United States; and
            (3) the Secretary of State, in partnership with the 
        Secretary of Commerce, State and local governments, and private 
        and nonprofit entities, should take all necessary steps to 
        facilitate the timely submission of a request to rejoin the 
        BIE.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall take such actions 
as may be necessary for the United States to rejoin the BIE, 
notwithstanding any prohibitions under section 204 of the Admiral James 
W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal 
Years 2000 and 2001 (22 U.S.C. 2452b).
    (b) Report.--The Secretary of State shall inform the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate upon submitting a request to rejoin the 
BIE.
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