The US Senate passed a Congressional Review Act resolution to revoke a Securities and Exchange Commission requirement for US oil and gas and other extractive industries to disclose payments to foreign governments by 52 to 47 votes. The Feb. 3 action along party lines sent H.J. Res. 41 to the White House for President Donald J. Trump’s signature since the House passed the measure 2 days earlier (OGJ Online, Feb. 2, 2017).
“Once President Trump signs this CRA Resolution, American oil and gas companies will no longer be at a disadvantage relative to their international competitors,” Sen. James N. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who introduced the measure in the Senate, said following the vote. “By repealing this harmful rule, US companies will save millions of dollars annually and won’t have to choose whether to comply with US laws or foreign laws.”
Sen. Benjamin J. Cardin (D-Md.), who co-wrote with then-Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) Section 1504 of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that created the requirement, said, “It should be lost on no one that in less than 48 hours, the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed the former head of ExxonMobil to serve as our Secretary of State, and repealed a key anti-corruption rule that ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute have erroneously fought for years.”
Cardin declared, “Big Oil might have won the battle today, but I’m not done fighting the war against entrenched corruption that harms the American people’s interests and leaves the world’s poor trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty while their leaders prosper.” Independents Angus King (Me.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.) voted with Democrats against the resolution. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) was absent and did not vote.
The American Petroleum Institute applauded the Senate’s vote. “Today’s action by the Senate is a step closer to establishing sensible regulations that balance increasing transparency without diminishing our industry’s competitive advantage,” it said in a Feb. 3 statement. “We hope the administration will build upon Congress’s efforts by signing this resolution into law, helping to protect American companies, workers and investors.”
Groups that opposed the resolution and wanted to preserve the regulation condemned the Senate’s action. “In the 5 years after Section 1504 passed, more than $1.5 trillion should have been paid by oil companies to governments of some of the poorest countries on earth,” said Isabel Munilla, senior policy advisor for extractive industries at Oxfam America.
“This money should have been invested in building schools, roads and hospitals to fight poverty and improve global stability without using any foreign aid. But these payments will remain in the dark because of today’s actions,” she maintained.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
