Empower Burma Act of 2016

Empower Burma Act of 2016

This bill directs the President to establish a multiyear strategy to encourage international efforts to promote sustainable economic development in Burma in order to reduce poverty, drive economic growth, and support democracy.

The President may establish an Interagency Working Group to coordinate the activities of U.S. agencies involved in carrying out such strategy.

The President should direct U.S. representatives to appropriate international bodies to advocate for increased economic development efforts in Burma.

The U.S. government should ensure that international development assistance projects that it supports in Burma:

• do not benefit entities on the list of specially designated nationals and blocked persons maintained by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (SDN list) or entities otherwise undermining peace in Burma,
• do not benefit the military,
• do not marginalize vulnerable populations or exclude any ethnic or religious communities, and
• promote good governance and meet internationally recognized labor standards.

It is the sense of Congress that:

• preferential duty treatment should be extended to Burma as soon as Burma meets specified eligibility criteria;
• the Millennium Challenge Corporation should provide assistance to Burma as soon as Burma qualifies as an eligible country and enters into a Millennium Challenge Compact with the United States; and
• the President should not remove any entity from the SDN list without credible evidence that the entity is no longer participating in the activities for which it was listed and is not undermining peace in Burma.