H.R.3497 - Iraq Cultural Heritage Protection Act108th Congress (2003-2004)
|Sponsor:||Rep. English, Phil [R-PA-3] (Introduced 11/17/2003)|
|Committees:||House - Ways and Means|
|Latest Action:||12/01/2003 Referred to the Subcommittee on Trade. (All Actions)|
This bill has the status Introduced
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Summary: H.R.3497 — 108th Congress (2003-2004)All Bill Information (Except Text)
Introduced in House (11/17/2003)
Iraq Cultural Heritage Protection Act - Bans the importation into the United States of any archaeological or cultural material of Iraq that was removed from Iraq after the issuance of Executive Order 12722 of August 2, 1990, unless the Department of Homeland Security determines that such material was legally exported from Iraq. Requires U.S. customs officers to detain such material until it can be certified as legally exported from Iraq. Allows such import restrictions to be lifted after the expiration of certain sanctions imposed upon Iraq by the United Nations Security Council.
Subjects to seizure and forfeiture any Iraqi archaeological or cultural material that is illegally imported into the United States or that cannot be certified as legally exported from Iraq. Requires the return to Iraq of any archaeological or cultural material forfeited under this Act.
Defines "country of origin" for purposes of applying U.S. tariff and customs laws to certain archaeological materials.
Amends the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to: (1) redefine an object of archaeological interest as one that is at least 100 years old (currently, at least 250 years old); (2) classify certain coins or coin-like objects as objects of archaeological interest if such coins are at least 250 years old; (3) limit the period during which import restrictions under the Act may be placed on the archaeological or ethnological material of any country to ten years (subject to extensions by the President for emergency conditions) after the date such restrictions are published in the Federal Register; (4) make changes in the membership of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee; and (5) extend from five to ten years the effective period of bilateral or multilateral agreements for import restrictions on archaeological or ethnological materials.