Senate Panel Backs Sanctions Bills for China, Russia
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved several bills by voice vote Oct. 22 that could lead to additional sanctions on China and Russia.
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Among them is the REPO for Ukrainians Implementation Act, which is aimed at transferring about $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine (see 2509230056). “Seizing assets is not and should not be something that any country does lightly, but the sheer brutality of Russia against the citizens of Ukraine, makes this legally and morally justified to rebuild Ukraine,” committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said, according to a press pool report.
The other Russia-related bills are the Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act, which would designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism until it returns more than 19,000 children it abducted during its Ukraine invasion (see 2509110057), and the Stop Russia and China Act, which could lead to additional sanctions on China for providing dual-use items to Russia’s war against Ukraine (see 2508020001).
“I think it’s notable that this is the first time in this Congress that Russia-related legislation has been considered before the committee,” committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said. “So it’s a step forward and given what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is doing, I think that it’s past time that Congress take action to rein in [his] unprovoked war in Ukraine.”
Other bills approved by the committee include:
- Deter PRC Aggression Against Taiwan Act, which would require the executive branch to form an interagency task force to identify Chinese entities that could be sanctioned for supporting an attempt by China to take over Taiwan (see 2510030018)
- Think Twice Act, which would require the State Department to describe steps the U.S. can take to revise its foreign arms sales process to make American products more attractive to prospective buyers of Chinese weapons (see 2507250023)
- Porcupine Act, which aims to speed up arms shipments to Taiwan (see 2505140001)
- AUKUS Improvement Act, which seeks to remove obstacles to defense trade within the Australia-U.K.-U.S. security partnership (see 2506200003)
- Scam Act, which would allow the president to use International Emergency Economic Powers Act sanctions against transnational criminal organizations that conduct large-scale cyber scams targeting Americans (see 2510010059)
- Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act, which would mandate sanctions against Haitian criminal gangs and the political and economic elites who support them (see 2505230001)
- Unnamed legislation that could make it easier for Cyprus to buy U.S. defense equipment (see 2506110007).
The bills now head to the full Senate for its consideration.
Separately, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Bill Keating, D-Mass., introduced a House companion Oct. 21 to the Senate bill that would designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Their measure was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.