SA 5629. Mrs. CLINTON (for herself and Mr. Ensign) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill S. 3001, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2009 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:


On page 342, between lines 10 and 11, insert the following:
SEC. 1208. SUPPORT FOR AN IRAQ OIL TRUST.
(a) Statement of Policy.--It is the policy of the United States that--
(1) the people of Iraq should benefit directly from a share of the revenues generated by the hydrocarbon resources of their country; and
(2) the United States Government should present a plan and provide capacity and economic assistance for the implementation of an Iraq oil trust.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the future of Iraq's oil reserves remains at the heart of political reconciliation in Iraq;
(2) ensuring that individual Iraqis benefit directly from hydrocarbon revenues is critical to promoting reconciliation and facilitating sustainable stability in Iraq;
(3) the development and implementation of an oil trust could provide significant benefits to Iraq and its citizens, including by--
(A) helping to demonstrate the values at the heart of democratic governance by giving Iraqi citizens a direct stake in the responsible and transparent management of the hydrocarbon resources of Iraq and the use and distribution of hydrocarbon revenues;
(B) helping to diffuse the degree and concentration of control of the revenues generated from hydrocarbon resources, thereby reducing the opportunity for and magnitude of corruption;
(C) facilitating ``bottom-up'' private sector development, which will be critical to Iraq's future prosperity and economic diversity, by putting revenues from the oil resources of Iraq directly in the hands of its citizens;
(D) helping to alleviate the incentive for smuggling or sabotage by providing individual citizens a direct stake in the amount of Iraqi oil that is legally produced and sold;
(E) contributing to sustainable security by providing individuals monetary-resource alternatives to cooperating with militias, extremists, and other extra-legal entities;
(F) providing additional income directly to individual citizens, thereby stimulating entrepreneurship and reducing the reliance on the ability of the central and provincial governments to deliver basic services and execute their budgets; and
(G) serving as a model for revenue distribution to other resource-rich countries in the Middle East; and
(4) the United States should provide assistance to Iraq for implementation of an oil trust.
(c) Certification.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall certify to the appropriate congressional committees that representatives of the United States Government have presented to Government of Iraq representatives an oil trust plan that includes--
(1) background on oil trusts, including those currently used by sovereign nations or territories and states within nations;
(2) options for different types of oil trusts that could be implemented in Iraq; and
(3) a discussion on the steps necessary to implement an oil trust.
(d) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Armed Services, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.


(As printed in the Congressional Record for the Senate on Sep 17, 2008.)