Sec. 2. Findings

370 words·~2 min read·/bill/117/s/2109/is/section-2

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Congress makes the following findings: The President has agreed to a general allocation of Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund totaling $650,000,000,000 without consent from Congress. Special Drawing Rights are distributed according to a country’s economic standing in the global economy, allowing the wealthiest countries in the world to receive the most Special Drawing Rights of all members of the International Monetary Fund. The President’s justification for supporting the proposed allocation is to allow low-income countries to exchange their Special Drawing Rights for currency to fund efforts to combat the COVID–19 pandemic.

Under the proposed allocation of $650,000,000,000 Special Drawing Rights— Group of Twenty countries, the largest economies in the world, would receive the bulk of the Special Drawing Rights, totaling $426,000,000,000; and only 3 percent, or $21,000,000,000, would be given to the intended recipients, the poorest countries in the world. The President recommends a Special Drawing Rights allocation that sends tens of billions of dollars in aid to dictators, including Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani, Bashar al-Assad, and Nicolás Maduro.

Under the proposed allocation, the People's Republic of China, a known perpetrator of genocide, stands to receive $22,000,000,000, which is more than the $21,000,000,000 all the poorest countries combined will receive. Countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism would also receive Special Drawing Rights, with $3,500,000,000 going to Iran and $900,000,000 going to Syria. The notion that Special Drawing Rights are a no-cost way to help poor countries procure COVID–19 vaccines is demonstrably false, and further would require the United States to issue debt and pay interest on that debt in order to cover the loans issued through Special Drawing Rights.

On March 24, 2021, the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, acknowledged that a Special Drawing Rights allocation comes at a cost to the United States taxpayer, as the United States is financially responsible for exchanging United States dollars in return for Special Drawing Rights presented to the United States. It is the duty of Congress to decide how taxpayer dollars are used and whether or not United States dollars should be exchanged for Special Drawing Rights that will be awarded to dictators and countries that actively oppose the national interests of the United States.