Ed Royce: “in the last Congress, this body at the urging of the administration approved $18 billion in new payments to the…”

“in the last Congress, this body at the urging of the administration approved $18 billion in new payments to the International Monetary Fund. At that time, some of us called for reforms to this flawed institution, reforms that would have required real transparency and would have provided greater accountability for the IMF. But at that time, the administration's position was that it was not the time to institute reforms, that it was critical to send the money first, they said, reform it later. So that is what Congress did, not with my vote; but that is what Congress did. Congress sent a check for $18 billion, only to find out last month that billions of dollars in IMF loans to Russia, the fund's largest borrower over the last 7 years, likely was diverted and laundered through U.S. and other Western banks. The IMF states that they have no evidence that their money is involved and that they are investigating. Well, it is time that this Congress conducts its own investigation and holds the IMF accountable. Its largest donors, the U.S. taxpayers, deserve no less.”