I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1642
To urge reforms of the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
Initiative, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 26, 2001
Ms. WATERS (for herself, Mr. BACHUS, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr.
SANDERS, and Ms. LEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To urge reforms of the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Initiative, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Debt Cancellation for
the New Millennium Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative was devel-
oped by the countries of the G–7 during the G–7
Summit meeting in Cologne, Germany, June 18–20,
1999.
(2) The purpose of the Enhanced HIPC Initia-
tive is to provide debt relief to the world’s poorest
countries and enable these countries to invest the
savings from debt relief in HIV/AIDS treatment and
prevention, health care, education, and poverty re-
duction programs.
(3) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative requires
heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs) to develop
and implement plans known as Poverty Reduction
Strategy Papers (PRSPs) with the participation of
civil society for the purpose of reducing poverty.
(4) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative has yielded
some promising results in some HIPCs. For exam-
ple, Tanzania has eliminated school fees, Honduras
is offering 3 more years of free schooling for public
school students, and Uganda has significantly re-
duced the rate of HIV transmission.
(5) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative does not
provide full cancellation of the debts of HIPCs.
(6) The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
and the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank) have sufficient resources
to provide full cancellation of the debts that HIPCs
owe to these institutions.
(7) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative requires
HIPCs to implement structural adjustment pro-
grams approved by the IMF, which impose economic
austerity upon these countries and are strongly op-
posed by civil society in many of the countries in
which the programs have been implemented.
(8) The process of developing and implementing
PRSPs has required considerable time and effort on
the part of officials and citizens in many HIPCs,
and, as a result, these countries have been unable to
begin to receive debt relief as quickly as had been
planned.
(9) The Enhanced HIPC Initiative requires
HIPCs to continue to make service payments on
their debts while they are developing and imple-
menting PRSPs, as well as while they are imple-
menting the IMF’s structural adjustment programs.
(10) By the end of the year 2000, only 22 out
of 41 HIPCs had begun to receive debt relief under
the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, and their debt serv-
ice payments have been reduced by an average of
only 27 percent. Furthermore, 16 of these 22 coun-
tries are still spending more money on debt service
payments than they are on health care.
(11) Bangladesh, Haiti, and Nigeria were ex-
cluded from the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, although
they are impoverished countries with significant debt
burdens.
(12) The complete cancellation of the debts of
impoverished countries will remove a major impedi-
ment to poverty reduction and economic growth, en-
able these countries to invest their resources in HIV/
AIDS treatment and prevention, health care, edu-
cation, and poverty reduction, and give these coun-
tries a fresh start in the new millennium.
SEC. 3. REFORMS OF THE ENHANCED HIPC INITIATIVE.
Title XVI of the International Financial Institutions
Act (22 U.S.C. 262p–262p–7) is amended by adding at
the end the following:
‘‘SEC. 1625. REFORMS OF THE ENHANCED HIPC INITIATIVE.
‘‘Congress urges the President to commence imme-
diately efforts, within the Paris Club of Official Creditors,
as well as the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank), the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and other appropriate multilateral develop-
ment institutions to accomplish the following modifica-