US official warns of failure to ratify IMF reforms

A senior US Treasury Department official told lawmakers that further delay by Congress to ratify International Monetary Fund reforms could undermine US influence.
Aiming to give developing countries more power at the institution, the reforms passed within the IMF more than two years ago would reallocate the quota, or voting weight, that each country wields.
But they cannot go into effect until Congress approves shifting of USD 65 billion dollars that the US provided to an IMF emergency fund into its permanent reserves.
At a Senate hearing today, Lael Brainard, Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, said: "The fact that we are the only thing standing in the way of IMF completing the quota and governance reforms is something that over time could erode our standing.