No Dollars for Dictators Act of 2021
Bill: S.2109 | Sponsor: Sen. Kennedy, John (R-LA)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
No Dollars for Dictators Act of 2021
This bill imposes additional restrictions on the U.S. government's authority to vote on Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocations at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
(The SDR is an international reserve asset maintained by the IMF based on contributions from IMF member countries. SDRs may be exchanged between member countries and may also be exchanged for currencies.)
Specifically, U.S. representatives to the IMF may not vote for SDR allocations to a country if the President finds that the country's government has (1) committed genocide in the last 10 years, or (2) repeatedly supported international terrorism.

To prohibit allocations of Special Drawing Rights at the International 
   Monetary Fund for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of 
             terrorism without congressional authorization.

    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 ``No Dollars for Dictators Act of 
2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The President has agreed to a general allocation of 
        Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund 
        totaling $650,000,000,000 without consent from Congress.
            (2) Special Drawing Rights are distributed according to a 
        country's economic standing in the global economy, allowing the 
        wealthiest countries in the world to receive the most Special 
        Drawing Rights of all members of the International Monetary 
        Fund.
            (3) The President's justification for supporting the 
        proposed allocation is to allow low-income countries to 
        exchange their Special Drawing Rights for currency to fund 
        efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
            (4) Under the proposed allocation of $650,000,000,000 
        Special Drawing Rights--
                    (A) Group of Twenty countries, the largest 
                economies in the world, would receive the bulk of the 
                Special Drawing Rights, totaling $426,000,000,000; and
                    (B) only 3 percent, or $21,000,000,000, would be 
                given to the intended recipients, the poorest countries 
                in the world.
            (5) The President recommends a Special Drawing Rights 
        allocation that sends tens of billions of dollars in aid to 
        dictators, including Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Hassan 
        Rouhani, Bashar al-Assad, and Nicolas Maduro.
            (6) Under the proposed allocation, the People's Republic of 
        China, a known perpetrator of genocide, stands to receive 
        $22,000,000,000, which is more than the $21,000,000,000 all the 
        poorest countries combined will receive.
            (7) Countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism 
        would also receive Special Drawing Rights, with $3,500,000,000 
        going to Iran and $900,000,000 going to Syria.
            (8) The notion that Special Drawing Rights are a no-cost 
        way to help poor countries procure COVID-19 vaccines is 
        demonstrably false, and further would require the United States 
        to issue debt and pay interest on that debt in order to cover 
        the loans issued through Special Drawing Rights.
            (9) On March 24, 2021, the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet 
        Yellen, acknowledged that a Special Drawing Rights allocation 
        comes at a cost to the United States taxpayer, as the United 
        States is financially responsible for exchanging United States 
        dollars in return for Special Drawing Rights presented to the 
        United States.
            (10) It is the duty of Congress to decide how taxpayer 
        dollars are used and whether or not United States dollars 
        should be exchanged for Special Drawing Rights that will be 
        awarded to dictators and countries that actively oppose the 
        national interests of the United States.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON ALLOCATIONS OF SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHTS AT 
              INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND FOR PERPETRATORS OF GENOCIDE 
              AND STATE SPONSORS OF TERRORISM WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL 
              AUTHORIZATION.

    Section 6(b) of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 U.S.C. 286q(b)) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3) Unless Congress by law authorizes such action, neither the 
President nor any person or agency shall on behalf of the United States 
vote to allocate Special Drawing Rights under article XVIII, sections 2 
and 3, of the Articles of Agreement of the Fund to a member country of 
the Fund, if the government of the member country has--
            ``(A) committed genocide at any time during the 10-year 
        period ending with the date of the vote; or
            ``(B) been determined by the Secretary of State, as of the 
        date of the enactment of the No Dollars for Dictators Act of 
        2021, to have repeatedly provided support for acts of 
        international terrorism, for purposes of--
                    ``(i) section 1754(c)(1)(A)(i) of the Export 
                Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 
                4813(c)(1)(A)(i));
                    ``(ii) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act 
                of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371);
                    ``(iii) section 40(d) of the Arms Export Control 
                Act (22 U.S.C. 2780(d)); or
                    ``(iv) any other provision of law.''.
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