Disapproval of President's Proposal Relating to Application of Certain Sanctions
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this joint resolution.
I have long maintained that provocations by Vladimir Putin and his cronies require a decisive and forceful response by the United States.
As the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I love the effort to strengthen our cyber defenses so that Russia cannot attack our political institutions and undermine our democracy. I have seen the classified reports and I know the threats. I take a back seat to no one in confronting Russia's malicious activities. The whole world has seen Russia's aggression in Ukraine and its support for Assad's brutality in Syria.
Bottom line, Putin's Russia is an adversary and must be treated as one. An effective foreign policy needs to use all economic and diplomatic tools to confront belligerent behavior by a foreign power. Those who threaten America and our allies need to understand that they will pay a heavy price so long as those threats persist.
As someone who believes that partisanship should stop at the water's edge, as the chairman often says at our Foreign Affairs Committee briefings, I don't believe that this issue should divide our two parties. In fact, it should unite us.
This also means that Congress must guard against playing partisan politics with sanctions. We must impose them when they are warranted, and we must allow them to be lifted when they have accomplished their goals.
I think many Members find Treasury's case for delisting these particular Russian companies to have an argument, but not very compelling.
For example, some still have questions about whether moving some of the oligarch shares to a family charity and to a sanctioned Russian bank will sufficiently sever the control and enrichment that he currently enjoys, and whether we can adequately monitor that with transparency.
Even though we may have a good-faith disagreement about the wisdom of this particular delisting at this point in time, I do want to commend the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. They implement and police many of the sanctions that Congress enacts, and there are good reasons for their bipartisan reputation for integrity and professionalism.
But because we cannot be sure that we have removed the heavy hand of this Russian oligarch, I cannot support the delisting of these sanctioned entities at this point in time.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to be clear, as the Republican leader of the Foreign Affairs Committee, that I support this resolution. I am not sure if my opening statement was properly heard by the other side of the aisle, but I join my colleagues on the other side and support this resolution in a bipartisan manner, as it should be, against our enemy Russia, Putin, and the oligarchs.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCAUL. I continue to reserve, Mr. Speaker.
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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and, yes, I am prepared to close.
Mr. Speaker, I was in the October 2016 classified briefings on the interference by the Russians in our Federal elections and in our Presidential elections. I condemned it at that time, and I continue to condemn it. I supported sanctions then, and I support those sanctions today.
For that reason, Mr. Speaker, until we have been fully satisfied by the Treasury Department, I support this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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