Rep. Pat Fallon (R., Texas) has a bipartisan plan to streamline “how Congress is notified of Presidential waivers regarding Sudanese procurement to improve efficiency without weakening Congressional oversight” when it comes to Sudan, he told the Washington Reporter.
Fallon and Rep. James Walkinshaw (D., Va.) introduced the Sudan Waiver Report Reduction Act, which was obtained exclusively by the Reporter. Their bipartisan legislation is designed to counter Chinese influence that is spreading throughout Africa via the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) debt trap diplomacy.
“This bill streamlines how Congress is notified of Presidential waivers regarding Sudanese procurement to improve efficiency without weakening Congressional oversight,” Fallon explained to the Reporter. “By shifting reporting from a centralized, semi-annual process to agency-specific reports within 30 days, it delivers more timely and relevant information while reducing unnecessary administrative burden.”
Following the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Congress passed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007; that bill was designed to apply economic pressure on Sudan’s National Congress Party by allowing state and local governments to divest from a variety of economic sectors, including the country’s economic and military industries.
Among the mechanisms was a certification that contractors on federal government contracts had no business ties to Sudanese “power production activities, mineral extraction activities, oil-related activities, or the production of military equipment.”
But the law also allows for the president to waive this certification as needed on a case-by-case basis, should it be in America’s national security interest to do so. When that happens, the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy is directed to semi-annually submit a report on all waivers granted by the president in this respect to the appropriate congressional committee.
What Fallon and Walkinshaw want to do is shift the congressional reporting requirements from that administrator to individual government agencies instead; their bill also changes the frequency reporting requirements to no later than 30 days after a presidential waiver, which is exceedingly rare, is given.
