[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 85 (Monday, May 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2546-S2547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1493. Mr. LEAHY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill S. 1260, to establish a new Directorate for Technology 
and Innovation in the National Science Foundation, to establish a 
regional technology hub program, to require a strategy and report on 
economic security, science, research, innovation, manufacturing, and 
job creation, to establish a critical supply chain resiliency program, 
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as 
follows:

       Strike section 3250 and insert the following:

     SEC. 3250. ADDRESSING CHINA'S SOVEREIGN LENDING PRACTICES IN 
                   LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.

       (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) since 2005, the Government of the People's Republic of 
     China has expanded sovereign lending to governments in Latin 
     America and the Caribbean, including governments with a 
     history of corruption and mismanagement, with loans that are 
     repaid or collateralized with natural resources or 
     commodities;
       (2) several countries in Latin American and the Caribbean 
     that have received a significant amount of sovereign lending 
     from the Government of the People's Republic of China face 
     challenges in repaying such loans;
       (3) the Government of the People's Republic of China's 
     predatory economic practices and sovereign lending practices 
     in Latin America and the Caribbean negatively influence 
     United States national interests in the Western Hemisphere;
       (4) the Inter-American Development Bank, the premier 
     multilateral development bank dedicated to the Western 
     Hemisphere, can play a significant role supporting the 
     countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in achieving 
     sustainable and serviceable debt structures; and
       (5) a tenth general capital increase for the Inter-American 
     Development Bank could enhance the Bank's ability to help the 
     countries of Latin America and the Caribbean achieve 
     sustainable and serviceable debt structures.
       (b) Support for a General Capital Increase.--The President 
     should consider supporting a tenth general capital increase 
     for the Inter-American Development Bank if countries holding 
     a majority of the shares in the Bank publicly endorse such a 
     capital increase.

[[Page S2547]]

       (c) Addressing China's Sovereign Lending in the Americas.--
     The Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Executive 
     Director to the Inter-American Development Bank shall use the 
     voice and vote of the United States--
       (1) to advance efforts by the Bank to help countries 
     restructure debt resulting from sovereign lending by the 
     Government of the People's Republic of China in order to 
     achieve sustainable and serviceable debt structures; and
       (2) to establish appropriate safeguards and transparency 
     and conditionality measures to protect debt-vulnerable member 
     countries of the Inter-American Development Bank that borrow 
     from the Bank for the purposes of restructuring Chinese 
     bilateral debt held by such countries and preventing such 
     countries from incurring subsequent Chinese bilateral debt.
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