[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 127 (Thursday, July 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S4532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 553. Mr. CORNYN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

     SEC. ___8. INVESTMENT OF ASSETS OF JAMES MADISON MEMORIAL 
                   FELLOWSHIP TRUST FUND.

       Subsection (b) of section 811 of the James Madison Memorial 
     Fellowship Act (20 U.S.C. 4510) is amended to read as 
     follows:
       ``(b)(1) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the 
     Treasury to invest in full the amounts appropriated to the 
     fund.
       ``(2) Subject to paragraph (3), investments of amounts 
     appropriated to the fund shall be made in public debt 
     securities of the United States with maturities suitable to 
     the fund. For such purpose, such obligations may be acquired 
     (A) on original issue at the issue price, or (B) by purchase 
     of outstanding obligations at the market price. The purposes 
     for which obligations of the United States may be issued 
     under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are hereby 
     extended to authorize the issuance at par of special 
     obligations exclusively to the fund. Such special obligations 
     shall bear interest at a rate equal to the average rate of 
     interest, computed as to the end of the calendar month next 
     preceding the date of such issue, borne by all marketable 
     interest-bearing obligations of the United States then 
     forming a part of the public debt, except that where such 
     average rate is not a multiple of \1/8\ of 1 percent, the 
     rate of interest of such special obligations shall be the 
     multiple of \1/8\ of 1 percent next lower than such average 
     rate. Such special obligations shall be issued only if the 
     Secretary determines that the purchases of other interest-
     bearing obligations of the United States, or of obligations 
     guaranteed as to both principal and interest by the United 
     States or original issue or at the market price, is not in 
     the public interest.
       ``(3)(A) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), upon receiving a 
     determination of the Board described in subparagraph (B), the 
     Secretary shall invest up to 40 percent of the fund's assets 
     in securities other than public debt securities of the United 
     States, provided that the securities are traded in 
     established United States markets.
       ``(B) A determination described in this subparagraph is a 
     determination by the Board that investments as described in 
     subparagraph (A) are necessary to enable the Foundation to 
     carry out the purposes of this title without any diminution 
     of the number of fellowships provided under section 804.
       ``(C) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to limit 
     the authority of the Board to increase the number of 
     fellowships provided under section 804, or to increase the 
     amount of the fellowship authorized by section 809, as the 
     Board considers appropriate and is otherwise consistent with 
     the requirements of this title.''.
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