Protecting Diplomats from Surveillance Through Consumer Devices Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5105) to establish the United States International Development Finance Corporation, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is the BUILD Act. Across the globe, lack of access to capital is constraining economic growth, especially in the world's least developed countries.

According to the International Finance Corporation, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises have an unmet financing need of more than $5 trillion every year in emerging markets, depriving them of the capital that they need to grow. Foreign investment is critical to empowering entrepreneurs, critical to creating jobs and to reducing poverty.

Our country has an undeniable interest in supporting the development of vibrant and stable economies around the world. Healthy private sectors promote good governance and support thriving civil societies. It helps reduce civil strife. The resulting stability is good for our national security and also benefits U.S. exports and jobs.

Increasingly, other countries are working to advance their economic and political interests by shaping overseas markets. China's One Belt, One Road initiative is estimated at $1 trillion. This dwarfs the size of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt war-torn Europe in the 1940s and 1950s.

Across Africa, Asia, and beyond, Beijing is making massive investments in new construction and infrastructure projects, from the headquarters of the African Union to a port in Djibouti, where both the U.S. and China now have military bases. Beijing now owns 80 percent of this strategically located African nation's foreign debt.

As the president and CEO of OPIC, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, testified to the Foreign Affairs Committee, his words: ``A condition of many of these loans is that Chinese firms, and labor, get the business. . . . This state-directed approach is not consistent with our values, which incorporate the high standards of international financial institutions related to governance, transparency, debt sustainability, environmental, and social safeguards.''

Chinese development practices have often left countries worse off-- and I have seen this with my own eyes--putting some countries into debt distress. Last December, Sri Lanka gave control of the strategic Sri Lankan port to Beijing for 99 years after it could not repay the Chinese-backed loans to fund it. That granted Beijing a foothold in the Indian Ocean and its critical shipping lanes.

And due to Beijing's ``no strings attached'' financing, some of Africa's most brutal regimes have been thrown an economic lifeline that undermines democratic governance. Unlike the United States, Beijing does not have an anti-corruption standard. It is willing to fund just about any government, from Venezuela to Sudan.

The U.S. cannot and should not match China's investments dollar-for- dollar, but we can and should do more to support international economic development with partners who have embraced the private sector-driven development model.

However, America's development finance tool kit, which is spread across multiple agencies, is limited, it is duplicative, it is uncoordinated. So the BUILD Act will address these shortcomings. It will modernize America's antiquated development finance capabilities to address the challenges of this century. Specifically, it will merge OPIC and USAID's development credit authority into a standalone U.S. international development finance corporation with new authorities.

Among these new authorities will be the ability to cofinance projects with our allies like the U.K.

What this is going to do, just on the U.S. side, is this is going to double their book of business.

Through the provision of loans and guarantees and limited equity investments and feasibility studies, political risk insurance, and other investments of support, the new Development Finance Corporation will mobilize private capital to provide countries a competitive alternative to the state-directed approach of Beijing and Moscow.

I am pleased that this bill doesn't just merge existing functions together but also includes critical reforms to protect taxpayers, to improve government efficiency, and to make America's development finance toolkit very effective. Notably, it adopts many of the same principles as the Millennium Challenge Corporation, including the constraints analysis, which directs investment to where it will have the most impact.

This bill will create a dedicated inspector general of the new corporation. It will require that the corporation prioritize support in the poorest countries and those making continual progress towards economic policies that support free enterprise, and it will create lasting institutional linkages between the Development Finance Corporation and other development agencies.

This bill has got strong support from the White House, which made it a priority in its National Security Strategy and 2019 budget.

In short, the BUILD Act represents a major opportunity for this Congress and the executive branch to transform and modernize our Nation's tools to support global development and increase opportunities for American entrepreneurs in these emerging markets.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives, Committee on Transportation and

Infrastructure,

Washington, DC, July 16, 2018.

Hon. Ed Royce,

Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Royce: I write concerning H.R. 5105, the

Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act

of2018. This legislation includes matters that I believe fall

within the Rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on

Transportation and Infrastructure.

In order to expedite floor consideration of H.R. 5105, the

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will forgo

action on this bill. However, this is conditional on our

mutual understanding that forgoing consideration of the bill

does not prejudice the Committee with respect to the

appointment of conferees or to any future jurisdictional

claim over the subject matters contained in the bill or

similar legislation that fall within the Committee's Rule X

jurisdiction. Further, I appreciate your agreement to

incorporate changes suggested by the Committee on

Transportation and Infrastructure into the bill prior to

floor consideration. Finally, should a conference on the bill

be necessary, I ask that you support my request to have the

Committee represented on the conference committee.

Please place a copy of this letter and your response

acknowledging our jurisdictional interest in the

Congressional Record during House Floor consideration of the

bill. I look

forward to working with the Committee on Foreign Affairs as

the bill moves through the legislative process,

Sincerely,

Bill Shuster,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho). He is the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, and he is the author of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4989.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask for an ``aye'' vote on the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5105.

H.R. 5105, the BUILD Act, which stands for Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act, modernizes our international development finance system. It does so by consolidating the existing Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which has the most unfortunate acronym in the Federal Government, since it is referred to as OPIC and is often confused with OPEC. It consolidates that organization into the new Development Finance Corporation.

I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this important measure.

I want to start by commending the lead sponsors of this bipartisan bill, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho), whom I am pleased to work with on the Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, where he serves as chairman and I serve as ranking member; and the second lead sponsor of this legislation, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.

It has been more than a decade since Congress last updated OPIC's charter. The landscape in development finance has changed substantially, and we now need a new approach to the way our government uses financial instruments to spur economic development and tackle poverty in the developing world.

Mr. Speaker, I particularly want to thank the leadership of the committee and the sponsors of the legislation for accepting four of my amendments.

The first of these requires a certification from the new DFC, or Development Finance Corporation, that the corporations that benefit from their investment and their affiliates do not conduct any activity which is the subject of U.S. sanctions. This is an important safeguard to ensure that entities that engage in contact that violates U.S. Government sanctions do not benefit from U.S. Government financing.

Simply prohibiting the support of sanctioned entities is not enough. We need an affirmative statement from prospective beneficiaries of the DFC that they and their affiliates are in compliance with American sanctions law.

Second, the new agency will need to consider whether the benefiting entity is participating in a foreign boycott that is at cross-purposes with American foreign policy. The U.S. should not be in the business of providing assistance to entities that participate in discriminatory boycotts against foreign countries.

Since the 1970s, we have had on the books laws designed to prevent our corporations from participating in the Arab League boycott of Israel. It is common sense that the DFC, when it is selecting projects, should take this into consideration. So my amendment will do just that.

I should point out that there is another amendment that I would have offered, but, instead, we secured a letter from OPIC that will be binding policy on the new DFC stating that the DFC will not finance regional projects in the Caucasus that are designed to exclude Armenia. If it doesn't make geographic sense that a regional railroad or road or other activity excludes Armenia, then that is OPIC policy that will be carried forward with the new agency that this will not be financed by the DFC.

Mr. Speaker, I include the following letters from OPIC in the Record.

Overseas Private

Investment Corporation,

Washington, DC, May 8, 2018.

Hon. Brad Sherman,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Congressman Sherman: Thank you for your continued

support of U.S. development finance, including your support

for H.R. 5105, the BUILD Act. Knowing of your long-standing

support for Armenia, I wanted to clarify an issue raised by

your office in writing.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation will not

support regional projects in the Caucasus that deliberately,

by design or effect, exclude Armenia from participation or

benefit, unless such exclusion is necessitated by geographic

or economic impracticality. As you know, when the BUILD Act

legislation is enacted into law, the functions, personnel,

assets, liabilities and policies of OPIC will transfer to the

U.S. Development Finance Corporation. Accordingly, this will

become the policy of the DFC.

Again, thank you for your continued support.

Regards,

Cameron S. Alford,

Deputy General Counsel, Projects.

Mr. Speaker, the third amendment that I thank the sponsors for agreeing to requires an annual report from the new DFC on its compliance with its own human rights, labor, environmental, and social policies.

OPIC maintains robust environmental and social policies. This bill carries those policies forward so the new DFC will follow them and will now make an annual report so that Congress can see whether these policies are actually being implemented.

The fourth such amendment states that, as to the four public nongovernmental members of the DFC board, that we take into account their experience in international environmental, developmental, and labor organizations. There are a number of other factors that go into selecting the public members of the board, but certainly experience in the environment and labor ought to be taken into consideration.

The BUILD Act updates U.S. development finance and, I think, will complement our foreign assistance efforts. With this bill, we can keep the U.S. as a global leader in promoting economic prosperity around the world while, at the same time, encouraging American jobs.

I support this measure and hope my colleagues will join me in doing so. Once again, this bill had a unanimous, bipartisan voice vote in our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee and the lead Democratic sponsor of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to commend the sponsors of this legislation and the leadership of our committee. I urge an ``aye'' vote,

and I point out that this bill received a unanimous bipartisan voice vote in our committee, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am excited to speak on behalf of H.R. 5105, the

BUILD Act, and urge its passage in this Chamber.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, Ranking Member Sherman, and my lead cosponsor, Adam Smith of Washington, for the hard work they and their teams have done to bring this bill to the floor. These gentlemen worked tirelessly along with their teams. I would also like to give a shout-out to our legislative director, James Walsh, who did yeoman's work for this bill.

Today, America is confronting unprecedented instability and growing humanitarian crises around the world, all of which have a direct impact on our national security and economic interests here at home.

Delivering effective U.S. foreign assistance is crucial, especially in the current fiscal climate in which it is imperative for the U.S. Government to use every dollar more efficiently and effectively. The BUILD Act will ensure the United States delivers foreign assistance both effectively and efficiently by catalyzing the private sector to invest in developing countries.

Of our top 15 trading partners, 12 of them were once recipients of foreign aid. Forty-three of our top 50 consumer nations of American agriculture products were once U.S. foreign aid recipients. Additionally, 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside of the United States, and the poorest two-thirds of the world now represent about $5 trillion in purchasing power. Their markets are growing faster than many of our traditional partners and are central to the future of America's economic prosperity, job growth, and security.

It is imperative to the United States economy that we seize upon these opportunities and make the investment now so that we may reap the benefits down the road. One of the ways to do this is to make our development finance more efficient and nimble.

U.S. businesses have the capital to invest and lead the world in the understanding of capital markets and sophisticated financial transactions, generally delivering investments in infrastructure and other industries quicker and less expensively.

Despite our comparative advantage, other countries, especially China, are using development finance institutions more effectively to expand their influence into the developing world, even here in the Western Hemisphere in the country of Haiti.

Our tools for development finance are dispersed across too many Federal agencies and need to be streamlined. The primary U.S. development agency, OPIC, has not been significantly updated since its creation in 1971. The BUILD Act will modernize all foreign finance development and bring it into the 21st century.

As you can imagine, the world of financial development has vastly changed since 1970, as all things do, to stay competitive. A modernized Development Finance Corporation is imperative to capitalizing upon those changes. It will help transition countries from aid to trade.

We want to help countries become robust trading partners with the United States. By doing so, we will be helping create stable, self- sufficient societies around the world and open new markets for U.S. goods and services. If we are trading goods, economies are growing, they are growing stronger, and relationships are forged, increasing national security.

There is truth to the saying, ``a rising tide lifts all boats.'' The BUILD Act will help make this a reality by transitioning recipient countries again from aid to trade.

In addition to improving efficiency, the BUILD Act also creates a more significant amount of oversight and increases the United States' development effectiveness.

The BUILD Act empowers the new Development Finance Corporation, as Secretary Pompeo testified to the Senate, ``to have the flexibility to identify a development need, bring to bear the right resources over the right period and manage it in a way that effectively delivers the outcome and measures it all along the way.''

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleague to pass the BUILD Act.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I really want to thank Congressman Yoho. We have worked together on this bill. We have also worked together as co-chairs of the Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance. This bill really shows the bipartisan support on the committee.

I certainly want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their work, as well, towards a very important goal, and that is to make more effective use of U.S. foreign aid and foreign development.

It is a crucial tool right now in the world. We need as many friends and as many partners as we can find in the world. Development through USAID and other agencies is a crucial way that we build the relationships and, as has been mentioned by all three of the previous speakers, as importantly, build the capacity of our partners to have a strong economy and to grow.

What this bill does is it makes our foreign investment policy better, more cohesive, and more robust. It enables that agency to invest in the projects that are necessary to help it be successful by expanding what it can do, by expanding its ability to work with other partners, to work with the private sector, and, crucially, to take an equity stake in some of their investments, something that current law prohibits. This will greatly expand their ability to find projects across the developing world to invest in and help grow these countries and move them forward.

The overall goal of foreign aid is to make sure that there, hopefully, at some point, are no countries in the world that can't provide for their people, to go after poverty, to reduce it wherever we can.

There are a lot of different projects that are important to foreign aid. Certainly, global health, education, and direct assistance all play a crucial role. But I would submit that nothing is more important than enabling these countries to develop their own economy by giving them the capital they need to invest in projects and grow businesses so that they become self-sustaining partners.

This bill does a crucially important job in making sure that the U.S. contribution to that effort is as effective as it possibly can be. It lives up to the name of our caucus, effective foreign assistance. This is critically important.

A lot of times people think of foreign aid as being, well, that is just sort of a leftwing issue. Well, I want you to know there is true bipartisan support in this Congress by Republicans and Democrats to improve the quality of our foreign aid.

I thank Congressman Yoho for his leadership on that. He has done a great job in making sure that this is a bipartisan issue because it is crucial that we reduce poverty and improve security across the globe, and it is also crucial that the U.S., as the largest, strongest economy in the world, plays a strong role in that effort.

This bill will put us in a better position to do precisely that. I will also say, I think this is but the first of many efforts that we can have on improving the quality of foreign aid, of making it more effective and more robust. It is worth noting that this bill also expands the amount of money that is available to our foreign lending. It gives them more money to deal with.

I strongly support this bill, this bipartisan effort, and I appreciate Congressman Yoho's leadership. I look forward to continuing to work with him on this and many other issues.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4989) to require the Department of State to establish a policy regarding the use of location-tracking consumer devices by employees at diplomatic and consular facilities, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First, I thank Mr. Castro and Mr. McCaul, the co-authors of this legislation. I know Mr. McCaul knows some of the dangers that our diplomats face overseas. In his past service to the United States, he has been in parts of this dangerous world, and this is what our diplomats face. As they work to prevent armed conflict, there are armed combatants on the other side of those issues. As they try to combat terrorism, as they are working out there to empower women or to open new markets for U.S. exports, they are in tough environments. In turn, it is our job to ensure that our diplomats have the information and resources they need to stay safe while they serve our country overseas.

Now more than ever, everyday devices such as smartphones include location tracking capabilities. While these are enormously useful tools, they also, obviously, present security concerns as users' locations can then be tracked by others, by hostiles.

For the thousands of State Department employees who work overseas, this is a real concern. It is a real security risk.

While the State Department has longstanding and thorough policies on the use of these devices while in embassies and in consulates, the Department has no such policy to guide personnel outside Department grounds. And that is where we send them, outside the Department grounds.

So the bill before us today addresses this security gap. It mandates that the State Department develop a comprehensive, modernized policy on devices that contain tracking capability. It also requires that all current and future diplomatic staff be briefed on the new policy and current best practices for using devices that are enabled with local tracking features. The objective is to build in a culture of safety and self-awareness.

Technology is advancing every day, and we must not allow our agencies to expose personnel to new risks.

I urge my colleagues to support this act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the coauthor of this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Our diplomats serve in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. They advance U.S. interests overseas, and while they serve our Nation overseas, it is our job here to ensure that they have the information and resources that they need to stay safe. So I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this timely bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.