Suspending Energy Imports From Russia Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 6968 which will cut off oil and other energy imports from Russia which provide key support to Putin's war machine.
This bill stands in solidarity with the proud Ukrainian people fighting for their homeland and builds on President Bidens executive actions to ban Russian energy imports.
The crippling sanctions the Biden Administration has coordinated with our allies have isolated Russia to an unprecedented degree: are weakening Russia's ability to fund their illegal military offensive.
I believe that we can and should do even more. Although our European allies have moved quickly to support punishing sanctions against Russia and its corrupt leaders, other countries are providing aid and comfort by actually stepping up trade with Russia.
As we look to ratchet up the pressure on Russia to force them to stop the needless bloodshed, we need to ensure that every country is doing their part to help end this war and hold Russia accountable.
Mr. Speaker, as an original cosponsor of this bill, I urge my colleagues to vote yes to send a strong unified message that we are committed to doing everything we can to fight Russian aggression, stand with the Ukrainian people, and provide the military assist Ukraine desperately needs to defend itself.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 6968, the ``Suspending Energy Imports From Russia Act.''
I support this legislation because it demonstrates the commitment of the United States in assembling and leading an international coalition of the world's leading nations to ensure that all nations refuse to recognize the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and to ensure that the Russian Federation is held accountable and sustain maximum economic damage from the imposition of sanctions as a consequence of its utter disregard for international law and norms.
Specifically, H.R. 6968 bans the importation into the United States of Russian crude oil and certain petroleum products, liquefied natural gas, and coal.
Last year, the U.S. imported nearly 700,000 barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Russia so this step will deprive Russia of billions of dollars in revenues from U.S. drivers and consumers annually.
The bill also bans new U.S. investment in Russia's energy sector, which will ensure that American companies and American investors are not underwriting Vladimir Putin's efforts to expand energy production inside Russia.
Finally, the bill bans Americans from financing or enabling foreign companies that are making investment to produce energy in Russia.
The Russian ruble is now worth less than a penny and has hit an all- time low after losing almost half of its value since Putin announced his further invasion of Ukraine.
By isolating Russia's Central Bank and cutting off the largest Russian banks from the international financial system, Russia has been disarmed his war chest of foreign reserves and left Putin to soften the blow of our sanctions.
U.S. and allied export controls are impacting industrial production in Russia, Russian commercial aviation, and other key sectors of the Russian economy.
The United States and governments all over the world are going after Putin's cronies and their families by identifying and freezing the assets they hold in our respective jurisdictions--their yachts, luxury apartments, money, and other ill-gotten gains.
The United States strongly supports efforts to assist Ukraine to defend its territory against military aggression by the Russian Federation and by separatist and paramilitary forces.
Ukraine was the second-most populous and powerful of the fifteen republics of the former and disintegrated Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the hub of the union's agricultural production, defense industries, and military arsenal.
In the three decades since gaining its independence, Ukraine has sought to forge its own path as a sovereign state and sought closer economic, social, and political ties with the free market and democratic nations of the West.
Since 2013, the Russian Federation has undertaken a campaign of political, economic, and military aggression against Ukraine, including the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a civilian airliner, by Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists using a Russian-made missile taking the lives of all 298 innocent persons on board.
In February 2014, the military of the Russia Federation, without merit or cause, invaded the eastern part of the free and independent country of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, and backed a separatist insurgency in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.
The United States, a strategic ally of Ukraine, reacted swiftly to the Russian invasion, condemning the military action in strong and bipartisan fashion, and providing military, humanitarian, and non- military financial assistance to the determined but beleaguered nation of Ukraine, which since 2014 has totaled approximately $1.5 billion.
On September 14, 2014, the House of Representatives adopted H. Res. 726, a resolution supporting the right of the people of Ukraine to freely determine their future, including their country's relationship with other nations and international organizations, without interference, intimidation, or coercion by other countries, and committed itself to solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Interference and unprovoked aggressions by the Russia Federation ordered and led by Vladimir Putin continued unabated, including the mobilization and stationing of 150,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine and armed forces positioned in Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north, including war planes and offensive missile systems, and the movement of Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea to Ukraine's south, including amphibious assault ships, missile cruisers, and submarines, and the positioning of blood and medical equipment into position on their border.
Vladimir Putin sought authorization from the Russian parliament to use military force outside of Russian territory by staging a fraudulent on-camera meeting of his Security Council to grandstand for the Russian public and by recognizing sovereign Ukrainian territory as so-called independent republics in clear violation, again, of international law, all of which was intended to set the stage for further pretexts and further provocations by Russia Federation to make further aggressions against Ukraine by military action.
Vladimir Putin rejected every good-faith effort the United States and its allies and partners made to address mutual security concerns through dialogue to avoid needless conflict and avert human suffering.
On February 23, 2022, the Russia Federation military, at the direction of Vladimir Putin, began a premeditated brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity, making outlandish, false, and baseless claims that Ukraine was about to invade and launch a war against Russia and that Ukraine was prepared to use chemical weapons, and that Ukraine had committed a genocide.
These actions were taken by Vladimir Putin at the very moment that the United Nations Security Council was meeting to stand up for Ukraine's sovereignty to stave off invasion, culminating in missile strikes on historic cities across Ukraine, followed by air raids and the invasion of Russian tanks and troops.
Mr. Speaker, through this legislation the United States strongly condemns and opposes the unprovoked invasion and egregious act of aggression against sovereign state of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the most provocative and destabilizing act of foreign aggression since the 1938 invasion of the Sudetenland by the Third Reich led by Adolph Hitler.
This legislation visits the costs of the unprovoked aggression and invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian head of the Russian Federation against the sovereign nation of Ukraine on the Russian economy.
The United States is strongly committed to the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
I ask all members to join me in voting for H.R. 6968 to support the right of the people of Ukraine to freely determine their future, including their country's relationship with other nations and international organizations, without interference, intimidation, or coercion by other countries.
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