Thursday, Sept. 9, 1999 | 10:49 a.m.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., is taking partial credit for pressuring the International Monetary Fund to kill its proposal to sell off $2.56 billion in its vast gold reserves. The IMF had wanted to sell the gold to help fund debt assistance to highly indebted nations around the world.
But Bryan argued that the move would drive the already deflated price of gold down even further. This would hurt Nevada, which leads the nation in gold production.
"Under heavy pressure from myself and a wide-ranging bipartisan group of my colleagues, the IMF has finally realized that Congress was not going to approve their misguided proposal," Bryan said in a statement. "Fortunately, this now-dead proposal will not needlessly jeopardize thousands of good-paying mining jobs."
Bryan added that he is withholding judgement on a proposal to revalue gold being considered at the U.S. Treasury Department as an alternative plan.
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