S.Amdt. 1493

SA 1493. Mr. LEAHY submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 1260, to establish a new Directorate for Technology and Innovation in the National Science Foundation, to establish a regional technology hub program, to require a strategy and report on economic security, science, research, innovation, manufacturing, and job creation, to establish a critical supply chain resiliency program, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

Strike section 3250 and insert the following:

SEC. 3250. ADDRESSING CHINA'S SOVEREIGN LENDING PRACTICES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) since 2005, the Government of the People's Republic of China has expanded sovereign lending to governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, including governments with a history of corruption and mismanagement, with loans that are repaid or collateralized with natural resources or commodities;

(2) several countries in Latin American and the Caribbean that have received a significant amount of sovereign lending from the Government of the People's Republic of China face challenges in repaying such loans;

(3) the Government of the People's Republic of China's predatory economic practices and sovereign lending practices in Latin America and the Caribbean negatively influence United States national interests in the Western Hemisphere;

(4) the Inter-American Development Bank, the premier multilateral development bank dedicated to the Western Hemisphere, can play a significant role supporting the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in achieving sustainable and serviceable debt structures; and

(5) a tenth general capital increase for the Inter-American Development Bank could enhance the Bank's ability to help the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean achieve sustainable and serviceable debt structures.

(b) Support for a General Capital Increase.--The President should consider supporting a tenth general capital increase for the Inter-American Development Bank if countries holding a majority of the shares in the Bank publicly endorse such a capital increase.

(c) Addressing China's Sovereign Lending in the Americas.--The Secretary of the Treasury and the United States Executive Director to the Inter-American Development Bank shall use the voice and vote of the United States--

(1) to advance efforts by the Bank to help countries restructure debt resulting from sovereign lending by the Government of the People's Republic of China in order to achieve sustainable and serviceable debt structures; and

(2) to establish appropriate safeguards and transparency and conditionality measures to protect debt-vulnerable member countries of the Inter-American Development Bank that borrow from the Bank for the purposes of restructuring Chinese bilateral debt held by such countries and preventing such countries from incurring subsequent Chinese bilateral debt.