Justice and Understanding By IMF Loan Elimination and Equity Act of 2004

Bill: 108-hr-4511
Sponsor: Rep. Waters, Maxine [D-CA-35]
Introduced: 2004-06-03 in the House
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance
Subjects: AIDS (Disease)
Africa (Sub-Saharan)
Angola
Armed Forces and National Security
Bangladesh
Benin
Bolivia
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Caribbean area
Central African Republic
Chad
Child health
Child labor
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Collective bargaining
Congo
Congress
Congress and foreign policy
Congressional investigations
Congressional oversight
Congressional reporting requirements
Crime and Law Enforcement
Debt relief
Defense budgets
Democracy
Democratic Republic of Congo
Developing countries
Development credit institutions
Drug abuse
Drug law enforcement
East Asia
Economic development
Economics and Public Finance
Electronic government information
Elementary and secondary education
Elementary education
Employee rights
Environmental Protection
Ethiopia
Families
Forced labor
Foreign loans
Freedom of association
Gambia
Ghana
Government Operations and Politics
Government publicity
Government regulation
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Haiti compilation
Health
Honduras
Hours of labor
Human immunodeficiency viruses
Human rights
Infrastructure
International Affairs
International cooperation
Internet
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Kenya
Labor and Employment
Laos
Latin America
Liberia
Madagascar
Malaria
Malawi
Mali
Maternal health services
Mauritania
Middle East and North Africa
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Occupational health and safety
Peru
Philippines
Potable water
Poverty
Preventive medicine
Privatization
Public health
Refuse and refuse disposal
Rwanda
Sanctions (International law)
Sao Tome and Principe
Science, Technology, Communications
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Social Welfare
South Africa
South Asia
State-sponsored terrorism
Tanzania
Togo
Tuberculosis
Uganda
User charges
Vietnam
Wages
Water Resources Development
Water pollution control
Water quality
Water supply
Water treatment plants
Web sites
Women
World health
Yemen
Zambia

Summary:
action_date: 2004-06-03
text: 
Justice and Understanding By IMF Loan Elimination and Equity (JUBILEE) Act of 2004 - Amends the International Financial Institutions Act to require the Secretary of the Treasury to commence immediate efforts, within the Paris Club of Official Creditors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other appropriate multilateral development institutions (MDI's), to accomplish: (1) cancellation of all debts owed to the IMF by specified eligible poor countries, and the financing of such debt cancellation from ongoing IMF operations, procedures, and accounts established as of the end of the most recent fiscal year, including the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (formerly known as the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility or ESAF); (2) limitation of any waiting period before receipt of debt cancellation to one month from the date of an eligible poor country's application for it; and (3) encouragement of the government of each eligible poor country to allocate at least 20 percent of its national budget, including the savings from such debt cancellation, for the provision of basic health care services, education services, and clean water services to individuals in the country.
 
Sets forth requirements for: (1) a prohibition against the IMF's requiring any country receiving new concessional loans to privilege the IMF as a creditor over the United States; (2) establishment of a framework to ensure the transparency regarding each international financial institution's activities; and (3) availability on the Treasury Department's website of U.S. Executive Directors' remarks at meetings of international financial institutions' Boards of Directors.
 
Requires the Secretary to commence immediate efforts, within the Paris Club, the IMF, and other appropriate MDI's, to ensure that the provision of debt cancellation to such countries is not conditioned on any agreement by such a country to implement or comply with specified policies that deepen poverty or degrade the environment.
 
Bars funds appropriated in any Act (except those providing for debt relief to poor countries) from being obligated or made available to IMF unless specified conditions are met relating to debt cancellation for all eligible poor countries and termination of conditioning debt relief on certain structural adjustment.
 



Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-06-28
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.
action_date: 2004-06-03
text: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
action_date: 2004-06-03
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2004-06-03
text: Introduced in House