Title: U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act
This bill expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should rejoin the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) to promote public diplomacy, global branding, and tourism to the United States.
The Department of State shall take necessary action within 90 days for the United States to rejoin the BIE.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 534 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 534

   To require the Secretary of State to take such actions as may be 
 necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International 
                  Expositions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 13, 2017

   Mr. Emmer (for himself, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Nolan, Mr. 
Peterson, Mr. Paulsen, Mr. Lewis of Minnesota, Mr. Walz, and Mr. Weber 
  of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of State to take such actions as may be 
 necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International 
                  Expositions, 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 ``U.S. Wants to Compete for a World 
Expo Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) is a 
        treaty-based organization, with 169 member states, responsible 
        for governing World Fairs and International Expositions since 
        the signing of the Convention Concerning International 
        Expositions on November 22, 1928. The United States is a party 
        to the Convention.
            (2) The United States withdrew from membership in the BIE 
        in 2001 in response to congressional limitations on the 
        expenditure of funds for United States participation.
            (3) The United States and other non-members of the BIE face 
        significantly higher costs to host and to participate in 
        international expositions because of their non-member status.
            (4) The bid of a United States city, region, or State to 
        host an international exposition is unlikely to be successful 
        if the United States is not a member of the BIE, because BIE 
        rules require that members receive a preference over non-
        members for all such bids.
            (5) Since the United States was previously a member of the 
        BIE, and has already acceded to the Convention, no formal 
        congressional action is necessary for the United States to 
        rejoin the BIE.
            (6) Section 1(a) of Public Law 91-269 (22 U.S.C. 2801(a)) 
        found that ``international expositions . . . have a significant 
        impact on the economic growth of the region surrounding the 
        exposition and . . . are important instruments of national 
        policy''.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) there are no statutory provisions that prohibit the 
        United States from rejoining the BIE;
            (2) the United States should rejoin the BIE immediately to 
        promote public diplomacy, global branding, and tourism to the 
        United States; and
            (3) the Secretary of State, in partnership with the 
        Secretary of Commerce, State and local governments, and private 
        and non-profit entities, should take all necessary steps to 
        facilitate the timely submission of a request to rejoin the 
        BIE.

SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall take such actions 
as may be necessary for the United States to rejoin the BIE, 
notwithstanding any prohibitions under section 204 of the Admiral James 
W. Nance and Meg Donovan Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal 
Years 2000 and 2001 (22 U.S.C. 2452b).
    (b) Report.--The Secretary of State shall inform the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Foreign Relations of the Senate upon submitting a request to rejoin the 
BIE.
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