Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 112 Part 1.djvu/42

 112 STAT. 16 PUBLIC LAW 105-158—FEB. 13, 1998 (5) In June of 1997, a representative of the Secretary of State, in testimony before the Congress, urged the reconsideration of the Hmited $500,000 settlement. (6) While a precisely accurate accounting of "heirless" assets may be impossible, good conscience warrants the recognition that the victims of the Holocaust have a compelling moral claim to the unrestituted portion of assets referred to in paragraph (3). (7) Furthermore, leadership by the United States in meeting obligations to Holocaust victims would strengthen— (A) the efforts of the United States to press for the speedy distribution of the remaining nearly 6 metric tons of gold still held by the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold (the body established by France, Great Britain, and the United States at the end of World War II to return gold looted by Nazi Germany to the central banks of countries occupied by Germany during the war); and (B) the appeals by the United States to the 15 nations claiming a portion of such gold to contribute a substantial portion of any such distribution to Holocaust survivors in recognition of the recently documented fact that the gold held by the Commission includes gold stolen from individual victims of the Holocaust. (b) PURPOSES. — The purposes of this Act are as follows: (1) To provide a measure of justice to survivors of the Holocaust all around the world while they are still alive. (2) To authorize the appropriation of an amount which is at least equal to the present value of the difference between the amount which was authorized to be transferred to successor organizations to compensate for assets in the United States of heirless victims of the Holocaust and the amount actually paid in 1962 to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization of New York for that purpose. (3) To facilitate efforts by the United States to seek an agreement whereby nations with claims against gold held by the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold would contribute all, or a substantial portion, of that gold to charitable organizations to assist survivors of the Holocaust. SEC. 102. DISTRIBUTIONS BY THE TRIPARTITE GOLD COMMISSION. (a) DIRECTIONS TO THE PRESIDENT.— The President shall direct the commissioner representing the United States on the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold, established pursuant to Part III of the Paris Agreement on Reparation, to seek and vote for a timely agreement under which all signatories to the Paris Agreement on Reparation, with claims against the monetary gold pool in the jurisdiction of such Commission, contribute all, or a substantial portion, of such gold to charitable organizations to assist survivors of the Holocaust. (b) AUTHORITY TO OBLIGATE THE UNITED STATES.— (1) IN GENERAL.— From funds otherwise unobligated in the Treasury of the United States, the President is authorized to obligate subject to paragraph (2) an amount not to exceed $30,000,000 for distribution in accordance with subsections (a) and (b).

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