After months of standing on the sidelines, it took the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan for the Biden Administration to finally listen. I recently led a letter with 17 Republicans on the Financial Services Committee to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging her to intervene to ensure that no SDRs from the IMF are made available to a Taliban-led Afghanistan. As a result, the Treasury Department announced that it is taking steps to prevent the Taliban from accessing an estimated $450 million in SDRs earmarked for Afghanistan, while the IMF confirmed that it is suspending Afghanistan’s access to these funds. In the letter, I also asked Secretary Yellen to provide detailed information on measures she will put in place at the IMF to ensure that SDRs – including SDR transfers – are not used by member countries in a manner that runs counter to our national interest.
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