BOLIVAR Act

Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act or the BOLIVAR Act

This bill prohibits an executive agency from entering into a contract for the procurement of goods or services with any person that has business operations with the Maduro regime in Venezuela.

The bill lists exceptions, including where vital to U.S. national security or as necessary for purposes of providing humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and other urgent lifesaving measures, or to carry out noncombatant evacuations.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 621 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 621

To prohibit contracting with persons that have business operations with 
               the Maduro regime, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 28, 2021

 Mr. Waltz (for himself, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Diaz-Balart, Mrs. 
 Murphy of Florida, Ms. Salazar, Miss Gonzalez-Colon, Mr. Gimenez, Mr. 
 Gaetz, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Posey, and Mr. Gonzalez of 
    Ohio) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To prohibit contracting with persons that have business operations with 
               the Maduro regime, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Banning Operations and Leases with 
the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act'' or the ``BOLIVAR 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON CONTRACTING WITH PERSONS THAT HAVE BUSINESS 
              OPERATIONS WITH THE MADURO REGIME.

    (a) Prohibition.--Except as provided under subsections (c), (d), 
and (e), the head of an executive agency may not enter into a contract 
for the procurement of goods or services with any person that has 
business operations with an authority of the government of Venezuela 
that is not recognized as the legitimate government of Venezuela by the 
United States Government.
    (b) Exceptions.--
            (1) In general.--The prohibition under subsection (a) does 
        not apply to a contract that the head of an executive agency 
        and the Secretary of State jointly determine--
                    (A) is necessary--
                            (i) for purposes of providing humanitarian 
                        assistance to the people of Venezuela;
                            (ii) for purposes of providing disaster 
                        relief and other urgent life-saving measures; 
                        or
                            (iii) to carry out noncombatant 
                        evacuations; or
                    (B) is vital to the national security interests of 
                the United States.
            (2) Notification requirement.--The head of an executive 
        agency shall notify each appropriate congressional committee, 
        the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
        Representatives, and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
        Senate of any contract entered into on the basis of an 
        exception provided for under paragraph (1).
    (c) Office of Foreign Assets Control Licenses.--The prohibition in 
subsection (a) shall not apply to a person that has a valid license to 
operate in Venezuela issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of 
the Department of the Treasury.
    (d) American Diplomatic Mission in Venezuela.--The prohibition in 
subsection (a) shall not apply to contracts related to the operation 
and maintenance of the United States Government's consular offices and 
diplomatic posts in Venezuela.
    (e) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Business operations.--The term ``business operations'' 
        means engaging in commerce in any form, including acquiring, 
        developing, maintaining, owning, selling, possessing, leasing, 
        or operating equipment, facilities, personnel, products, 
        services, personal property, real property, or any other 
        apparatus of business or commerce.
            (2) Executive agency.--The term ``executive agency'' has 
        the meaning given the term in section 133 of title 41, United 
        States Code.
            (3) Government of venezuela.--The term ``government of 
        Venezuela'' includes the government of any political 
        subdivision of Venezuela, and any agency or instrumentality of 
        the Government of Venezuela. For purposes of this paragraph, 
        the term ``agency or instrumentality of the Government of 
        Venezuela'' means an agency or instrumentality of a foreign 
        state as defined in section 1603(b) of title 28, United States 
        Code, with each reference in such section to ``a foreign 
        state'' deemed to be a reference to ``Venezuela''.
            (4) Person.--The term ``person'' means--
                    (A) a natural person, corporation, company, 
                business association, partnership, society, trust, or 
                any other nongovernmental entity, organization, or 
                group;
                    (B) any governmental entity or instrumentality of a 
                government, including a multilateral development 
                institution (as defined in section 1701(c)(3) of the 
                International Financial Institutions Act (22 U.S.C. 
                262r(c)(3))); and
                    (C) any successor, subunit, parent entity, or 
                subsidiary of, or any entity under common ownership or 
                control with, any entity described in subparagraph (A) 
                or (B).
    (f) Applicability.--This section shall apply with respect to any 
contract entered into on or after the date of the enactment of this 
section.
                                 <all>