1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act (NICA) of 2017 . 2. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) In 2006, Nicaragua, under President Enrique Bolaños, entered into a $175,000,000, 5-year compact with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). (2) After the 2008 municipal elections, the MCC stated that there was a pattern of decline in political rights and civil liberties in Nicaragua. (3) In 2009, the MCC terminated the compact and reduced the amount of MCC funds available to Nicaragua by $61,500,000, which led to the compact ending in 2011. (4) According to Nicaraguan law, the National Assembly is the only institution allowed to change the constitution, but in 2009, Daniel Ortega circumvented the legislature and went to the Supreme Court, which he controls, to rule in his favor that Presidential term limits were inapplicable. (5) The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives convened a congressional hearing on December 1, 2011, entitled Democracy Held Hostage in Nicaragua: Part 1 where former United States Ambassador to Nicaragua Robert Callahan testified [f]irst, that Daniel Ortega's candidacy was illegal, illegitimate, and unconstitutional; second, that the period leading to the elections and the elections themselves were marred by serious fraud