Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2325 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 2325
5	5	To withhold United States support for any action in the International Mone-
6	6	tary Fund relating to member states of the Central African Economic
7	7	Monetary Community until a determination as to gross foreign exchange
8	8	reserves is made.
9	9	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10	10	MARCH25, 2025
11	11	Mr. H
12	12	UIZENGA(for himself and Mr. MEUSER) introduced the following bill;
13	13	which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
14	14	A BILL
15	15	To withhold United States support for any action in the
16	16	International Monetary Fund relating to member states
17	17	of the Central African Economic Monetary Community
18	18	until a determination as to gross foreign exchange re-
19	19	serves is made.
20	20	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
21	21	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
22	22	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
23	23	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Central African Exploi-4
24	24	tation and Manipulation of American Companies Act’’ or 5
25	25	the ‘‘CEMAC Act’’. 6
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28	28	•HR 2325 IH
29	29	SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
30	30	The Congress finds as follows: 2
31	31	(1) The member states of the Central African 3
32	32	Economic Monetary Community (CEMAC) hold sig-4
33	33	nificant oil and gas reserves and have enjoyed dec-5
34	34	ades long relationships and investments with inter-6
35	35	national oil companies (IOCs). 7
36	36	(2) In 2018, the central bank for CEMAC, the 8
37	37	Bank of Central African States (BEAC) introduced 9
38	38	and intended to enact a foreign exchange regulation 10
39	39	that mandates extractive industry companies repa-11
40	40	triate restoration funds for site rehabilitation to the 12
41	41	BEAC. 13
42	42	(3) Significant progress has been made in medi-14
43	43	ated dialogues over the last 7 years to rectify 23 15
44	44	issues with this regulation raised by the IOCs. How-16
45	45	ever, significant issues remain including the refusal 17
46	46	of BEAC to remove its sovereign immunity from 18
47	47	execution, the role of BEAC as custodian of restora-19
48	48	tion fund accounts, and the implementation of dou-20
49	49	ble jeopardy and material adverse change clauses. 21
50	50	(4) BEAC has imposed a completely arbitrary 22
51	51	deadline of April 30, 2025, for the IOCs to sign this 23
52	52	agreement with penalties equivalent to 150 percent 24
53	53	of the restoration fund starting May 1, 2025. 25
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56	56	•HR 2325 IH
57	57	(5) Implementation of this regulation is ex-1
58	58	pected to create a lasting negative impact on oil and 2
59	59	gas investment in the Central African region, and 3
60	60	will drastically compound an already challenging in-4
61	61	vestment environment. 5
62	62	(6) The member states of BEAC have indicated 6
63	63	that these restoration funds will help them shore up 7
64	64	their foreign exchange reserves, despite restoration 8
65	65	funds being exclusively allocated for restoration work 9
66	66	costs and therefore not meeting the criteria of the 10
67	67	International Monetary Fund (IMF) for foreign ex-11
68	68	change reserves. 12
69	69	(7) The IMF’s Balance of Payments and Inter-13
70	70	national Investment Position Manual states that as-14
71	71	sets must be ‘‘readily available’’ and ‘‘controlled’’ by 15
72	72	a country’s monetary authorities to count towards a 16
73	73	country’s foreign exchange reserves. 17
74	74	(8) Oil and gas investments in the CEMAC re-18
75	75	gion have been declining since 2018 and this BEAC 19
76	76	foreign exchange regulation is expected to drastically 20
77	77	accelerate this decline. 21
78	78	(9) Standard & Poor’s estimates that the regu-22
79	79	lation by 2050 will result in a reduction of govern-23
80	80	ment revenue for CEMAC member states of 24
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83	83	•HR 2325 IH
84	84	$86,000,000,000, and a reduction in capital invest-1
85	85	ment of $45,000,000,000 in the region. 2
86	86	(10) By refusing to clarify that these restora-3
87	87	tion funds will not count towards gross foreign ex-4
88	88	change reserves, the IMF has misled the CEMAC 5
89	89	member states and directly put tens of billions of 6
90	90	dollars of IOCs investment in the region at risk. 7
91	91	SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 8
92	92	It is the policy of the United States that— 9
93	93	(1) the presence of United States companies is 10
94	94	a good thing for the regions in which they invest; 11
95	95	(2) any funds provided to the Bank of Central 12
96	96	African States (in this Act referred to as ‘‘BEAC’’) 13
97	97	by any extractive industry company for site rehabili-14
98	98	tation are ineligible to count towards the gross for-15
99	99	eign exchange reserves of a member state of the 16
100	100	Central African Economic Monetary Community (in 17
101	101	this Act referred to as ‘‘CEMAC’’) based on the re-18
102	102	quirements of the Balance of Payments and Inter-19
103	103	national Investment Position Manual of the Inter-20
104	104	national Monetary Fund (in this Act referred to as 21
105	105	the ‘‘IMF’’); 22
106	106	(3) the IMF has a responsibility to accurately 23
107	107	clarify to countries what are eligible and ineligible 24
108	108	assets to count towards the gross foreign exchange 25
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111	111	•HR 2325 IH
112	112	reserves of a country, so that countries are able to 1
113	113	create appropriate financial policies; and 2
114	114	(4) the IMF would be responsible for the loss 3
115	115	of investment that the CEMAC region would face if 4
116	116	a foreign exchange regulation that mandates extrac-5
117	117	tive industry companies repatriate restoration funds 6
118	118	for site rehabilitation to the BEAC is enacted. 7
119	119	SEC. 4. WITHDRAWAL OF FUNDING. 8
120	120	(a) I
121	121	NGENERAL.—Until the Secretary of the Treas-9
122	122	ury, in coordination with the United States Executive Di-10
123	123	rector at the IMF and the Secretary of State, makes the 11
124	124	determination described in subsection (b)— 12
125	125	(1) neither the President nor any person or 13
126	126	agency shall, on behalf of the United States, vote to 14
127	127	approve any action by the IMF relating to any 15
128	128	CEMAC member state; and 16
129	129	(2) the Secretary of the Treasury shall direct 17
130	130	the United States Executive Director at the IMF to 18
131	131	use the voice and vote of the United States to op-19
132	132	pose any proposal to— 20
133	133	(A) increase the quota in the IMF for any 21
134	134	CEMAC member state; or 22
135	135	(B) modify the exceptional access policy of 23
136	136	the IMF for any CEMAC member state. 24
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139	139	•HR 2325 IH
140	140	(b) DETERMINATION.—The determination referred to 1
141	141	in subsection (a) is a determination that the IMF has pub-2
142	142	licly clarified that any funds provided to BEAC by any 3
143	143	international oil company for site rehabilitation are ineli-4
144	144	gible to count towards the gross foreign exchange reserves 5
145	145	of any country. 6
146	146	(c) P
147	147	UBLICATION.—On making the determination de-7
148	148	scribed in subsection (b), the Secretary of the Treasury 8
149	149	shall publicize the determination and transmit a copy of 9
150	150	the determination to the appropriate congressional com-10
151	151	mittees. 11
152	152	(d) R
153	153	EPORT.—No later than 30 days after the date 12
154	154	the determination described in subsection (b) is made, and 13
155	155	no later than 180 days after the enactment of this Act 14
156	156	if the determination has, by then, not been made, the Sec-15
157	157	retary of the Treasury shall provide to the appropriate 16
158	158	congressional committees a report that details the actions 17
159	159	taken by the United States Government at the Inter-18
160	160	national Monetary Fund, including those by the United 19
161	161	States Executive Director at the IMF, to have the IMF 20
162	162	publicly clarify that any funds provided to BEAC by any 21
163	163	international oil company for site rehabilitation are ineli-22
164	164	gible to count towards the gross foreign exchange reserves 23
165	165	of a country. 24
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168	168	•HR 2325 IH
169	169	(e) APPROPRIATECONGRESSIONALCOMMITTEES.— 1
170	170	In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-2
171	171	mittees’’ means— 3
172	172	(1) the Committee on Financial Services and 4
173	173	the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 5
174	174	Representatives; and 6
175	175	(2) the Committee on Finance and the Com-7
176	176	mittee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. 8
177	177	Æ
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