Press Releases

On the heels of a bicameral letter urging U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen to get International Monetary Fund (IMF) countries to block Russian access to further IMF financing, Rep. French Hill (AR-02) today introduced the Russia and Belarus Special Drawing Right (SDR) Exchange Prohibition Act as part of a package of bills House Financial Services Committee Republicans introduced today to counter Russia.

“I have been warning about the dangers of the IMF’s mistaken policy on Special Drawing Rights for more than three years, and I fear the worst-case scenario may come true: that Russia turns to Beijing to exchange its SDRs to finance their attempted invasion of Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, Democrats have not only ignored repeated calls from Republicans to put guardrails on what these SDR funds can be used for, but incredulously continue to push for an additional SDR allocation of up to $2 trillion, which would send around $60 billion to the Kremlin and billions more to our adversaries like China, Iran, Belarus, and Syria.

“This would be a catastrophic mistake. That is why I am introducing the Russia and Belarus SDR Exchange Prohibition Act, which makes it absolutely clear that the United States is to play no part in making IMF funds available to Russia or Belarus.”

Further Background:

In addition to the letter to Secretary Yellen on Monday, Rep. Hill joined UK Member of Parliament Rehman Chishti in an opinion piece featured in The Times Redbox urging the IMF to review its rules on allocations of SDRs.

SDRs allow countries to lay claim to dollars, euros, and other major currencies to use with no strings attached. The amount an IMF country gets from an SDR allocation is largely based on a country’s position in the world economy, meaning most of the money goes to wealthy countries and rogue regimes, and not the countries that need it most.