Special Drawing Rights Oversight Act of 2021
Bill: H.R.1568 | Sponsor: Rep. Hill, J. French (R-AR)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Special Drawing Rights Oversight 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.)
Under current law, U.S. representatives to the IMF may not vote for SDR allocations to the United States beyond an amount authorized by statute unless Congress authorizes such a vote. This bill further reduces the allocation amount that U.S. representatives to the IMF may vote for without congressional approval.
Furthermore, 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 amend the Special Drawing Rights Act in order to strengthen 
congressional oversight with respect to allocations of Special Drawing 
    Rights by the International Monetary Fund, and to prohibit such 
    allocations for perpetrators of genocide and state sponsors of 
 terrorism without congressional authorization, 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 ``Special Drawing Rights Oversight Act 
of 2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) through 
        the International Monetary Fund (IMF) creates unconditional 
        liquidity for IMF member countries.
            (2) According to Article XVIII of the Articles of Agreement 
        of the IMF, allocations of SDRs ``shall seek to meet the long-
        term global need'' in reserve assets.
            (3) SDRs are allocated in proportion to the quotas of IMF 
        members, such that the G20 alone is entitled to approximately 
        two-thirds of a general allocation. At the same time, the Board 
        of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has swap line 
        arrangements with the central banks of eight G20 members, 
        including the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the 
        Bank of England, for the purpose of providing sufficient 
        liquidity.
            (4) The size of SDR allocations has expanded dramatically, 
        rising from 9,300,000,000 SDRs in 1970-1972, to 12,100,000,000 
        SDRs in 1979-1981, to 204,000,000,000 SDRs in 2009, with 
        proposals for a new, unilateral allocation that bypasses 
        congressional authorization in an amount of approximately 
        450,000,000,000 SDRs.
            (5) Under current law, the Secretary of the Treasury is 
        able to bypass Congress and approve an allocation of SDRs in a 
        manner that provides unconditional liquidity in the following 
        approximate amounts: $41,700,000,000 to the People's Republic 
        of China; $17,600,000,000 to the Russian Federation; 
        $4,900,000,000 to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and 
        $5,000,000,000 to Venezuela. In addition, current law permits 
        allocations in these amounts to be made in successive years 
        that span two basic periods.
            (6) In the 98th Congress, the House of Representatives 
        passed the bipartisan International Recovery and Financial 
        Stability Act, which would have prohibited new allocations of 
        SDRs without congressional authorization.

SEC. 3. STRENGTHENING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT.

    Section 6 of the Special Drawing Rights Act (22 U.S.C. 286q) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``each basic period'' and inserting 
                ``any 10-year period''; and
                    (B) by inserting ``25 percent of'' before ``the 
                United States quota''; and
            (2) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) by inserting ``, or consent to or acquiesce in 
                such an allocation,'' before ``without consultations'';
                    (B) by striking ``90'' and inserting ``180''; and
                    (C) by inserting ``Chairman and ranking minority 
                members of'' before ``the appropriate subcommittees''.

SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON ALLOCATIONS 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 President of the United States has found that the 
government of the member country--
            ``(A) has committed genocide at any time during the 10-year 
        period ending with the date of the vote; or
            ``(B) has repeatedly provided support for acts of 
        international terrorism.''.
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