II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1221
To prohibit contracting with persons that have business operations with the
Maduro regime, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL1 (legislative day, MARCH31), 2025
Mr. S
COTTof Florida (for himself, Mr. CRUZ, and Mrs. BLACKBURN) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To prohibit contracting with persons that have business
operations with the Maduro regime, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Banning Operations 4
and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian 5
Regime Act’’ or the ‘‘BOLIVAR Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH PERSONS 1
THAT HAVE BUSINESS OPERATIONS WITH 2
THE MADURO REGIME. 3
(a) P
ROHIBITION.—Except as provided in subsections 4
(b), (c), and (d), the head of an executive agency may not 5
enter into a contract for the procurement of goods or serv-6
ices with any person that the head of an executive agency 7
determines, with the concurrence of the Secretary of 8
State, knowingly engages in significant business oper-9
ations with an authority of the Government of Venezuela 10
that is not recognized as the legitimate Government of 11
Venezuela by the United States. 12
(b) E
XCEPTIONS.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The prohibition under sub-14
section (a) does not apply to a contract that the Sec-15
retary of State determines— 16
(A) is necessary— 17
(i) for purposes of providing humani-18
tarian assistance to the people of Ven-19
ezuela; 20
(ii) for purposes of providing disaster 21
relief and other urgent life-saving meas-22
ures; or 23
(iii) to carry out noncombatant evacu-24
ations; or 25
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(B) is in the national security interests of 1
the United States. 2
(2) S
UPPORT FOR UNITED STATES GOVERN -3
MENT ACTIVITIES.—The prohibition in subsection 4
(a) shall not apply to contracts that support United 5
States Government activities in Venezuela, including 6
those necessary for the maintenance of United 7
States Government facilities in Venezuela, or to con-8
tracts with international organizations. 9
(3) N
OTIFICATION REQUIREMENT .—The Sec-10
retary of State shall notify the appropriate congres-11
sional committees of any contract entered into on 12
the basis of an exception provided for under para-13
graph (1). 14
(c) O
FFICE OFFOREIGNASSETSCONTROLLI-15
CENSES.—The prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply 16
to a person that has a valid license to operate in Venezuela 17
issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. 18
(d) A
MERICANDIPLOMATICMISSION INVEN-19
EZUELA.—The prohibition in subsection (a) does not 20
apply to contracts related to the operation and mainte-21
nance of the United States Government’s consular offices 22
and diplomatic posts in Venezuela. 23
(e) W
AIVER.—The Secretary of State may waive the 24
requirements of subsection (a) if the Secretary of State 25
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determines that to do so is in the national interest of the 1
United States. 2
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -4
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-5
mittees’’ means the Committee on Homeland Secu-6
rity and Governmental Affairs and the Committee 7
on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Com-8
mittee on Homeland Security and the Committee on 9
Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives. 10
(2) B
USINESS OPERATIONS.—The term ‘‘busi-11
ness operations’’ means engaging in commerce in 12
any form, including acquiring, developing, maintain-13
ing, owning, selling, possessing, leasing, or operating 14
equipment, facilities, personnel, products, services, 15
personal property, real property, or any other appa-16
ratus of business or commerce. 17
(3) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘executive 18
agency’’ has the meaning given the term in section 19
133 of title 41, United States Code. 20
(4) G
OVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA .—(A) The 21
term ‘‘Government of Venezuela’’ includes the gov-22
ernment of any political subdivision of Venezuela, 23
and any agency or instrumentality of the Govern-24
ment of Venezuela. 25
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(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the 1
term ‘‘agency or instrumentality of the Government 2
of Venezuela’’ means an agency or instrumentality 3
of a foreign state as defined in section 1603(b) of 4
title 28, United States Code, with each reference in 5
such section to ‘‘a foreign state’’ deemed to be a ref-6
erence to ‘‘Venezuela’’. 7
(5) P
ERSON.—The term ‘‘person’’ means— 8
(A) a natural person, corporation, com-9
pany, business association, partnership, society, 10
trust, or any other nongovernmental entity, or-11
ganization, or group; 12
(B) any governmental entity or instrumen-13
tality of a government; and 14
(C) any successor, subunit, parent entity, 15
or subsidiary of, or any entity under common 16
ownership or control with, any entity described 17
in subparagraph (A) or (B). 18
(g) T
ERM OFAPPLICABILITY.—This section shall 19
apply with respect to any contract entered into during the 20
three-year period beginning on the date of the enactment 21
of this Act. 22
Æ
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