PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 14, 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.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
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.
People & committees
Sen. Gardner, Cory [R-CO] · R–CO
Legislative record
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 12, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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