House Passes World Bank Accountability Act
Washington,
January 17, 2018 -
On Wednesday, the House voted to pass H.R. 3326, World Bank Accountability Act.
This important piece of legislation – which makes a share of future World Bank appropriations contingent on reforms to the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) – passed the Financial Services Committee with unanimous bipartisan support.
IDA is a concessional lending window at the Bank for the world’s poorest countries which has been plagued by numerous issues, including institutional incentives that prioritize loan volume over delivering actual results; continued lending to corrupt regimes that abuse their citizens and trample on economic freedom for the poor; and insufficient attention paid to auditing Bank initiatives for corruption.
H.R. 3326 demands accountability by making future appropriations for the World Bank’s IDA contingent upon reforms that the Bank itself agrees are important.
“The reforms in this bill have emerged from five oversight hearings held in our Committee over the past two years, and passed our Committee by a unanimous vote of 60-0,” said Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). “People should be aghast at how this money has been spent at the World Bank. It’s not how much money you spend; it’s how you spend the money. If we want reforms, we’ve got to have some accountability. This is something that my friends on the other side of the aisle used to support and they should be ashamed that they are not supporting it today. We must all support HR 3326 and I very much commend the gentleman from Kentucky for bringing the valuable piece of legislation to the floor.”
“Giving the World Bank a blank check from U.S. taxpayers has enabled the poverty-fighting organization to lose its way,” said Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), chairman of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee. “The World Bank Accountability Act, which I introduced and the House passed today, makes our future contributions to the Bank conditional on reforms that will help better fight poverty, uphold human rights and democracy, prevent the flow of funds to corrupt governments and those who support terrorism, and improve oversight and accountability. I appreciate the support of my colleagues, and Chairman Hensarling in particular, as we work to hold the World Bank more accountable and to help it better achieve its mission of reducing poverty around the world.”
The bill passed the House 237-184.
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