Press Releases

The House Financial Services Committee today passed Rep. French Hill’s (AR-02), H.R. 6899, the Russia and Belarus SDR Exchange Prohibition Act of 2022. This legislation would prohibit the Treasury Secretary from exchanging dollars for IMF Special Drawing Right assets held by Russia or Belarus, and would require the Secretary to push IMF member countries to deny these transactions as well.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 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.

Further Background:

On February 28, 2022, Rep. Hill sent a letter alongside 40 other members of the House and Senate to Treasury Secretary Yellen encouraging her to get other IMF member countries to not facilitate any exchange of Russia’s SDRs.

Rep. Hill introduced H.R. 6899 on March 2, 2022, as part of a package of bills House Financial Services Committee Republicans introduced to counter Russia.

Rep. Hill also 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.

Last year, Rep. Hill introduced H.R. 1568, the Special Drawing Rights Oversight Act. This bill limits the executive branch’s ability to bypass Congress to authorize SDR allocations by limiting the size and frequency of allocations unless Congress authorizes them by law. Under current law, The U.S. Treasury has broad authority to unilaterally approve an SDR allocation. Rep. Hill’s bill ensures a proper check on the executive branch and greater accountability.