OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Date: May 10, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SHERMAN. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7066, the Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act.

I thank Chairwoman Waters, Ranking Member McHenry, and my co-lead on this bill, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), for their work in bringing forward this legislation.

This bill passed unanimously in the Financial Services Committee in March. The Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act represents a significant step forward in imposing sanctions on Russia and on Belarus for their historic aggression.

I have spent 26 years on the Foreign Affairs Committee and well over a decade on the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. I understand the importance of financial sanctions in changing Russia's behavior in part through my discussions with President Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders who have pointed out that that is their Achilles' heel.

Chairwoman Waters and I have for several years been pushing to prohibit Americans from purchasing all new Russian sovereign debt and have passed that through the House several times. But that was before the invasion.

As has been explained by my colleagues who have spoken, we now have effective sanctions prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from engaging in a wide range of transactions with Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities--particularly the Russian Central Bank--many of the state-owned enterprises and financial institutions, and oligarchs.

But what people have not focused on is that these sanctions apply only to U.S. persons and do not apply to the over 1,000 foreign subsidiaries of American financial institutions. As we meet here today, foreign subsidiaries owned by U.S. financial institutions are engaging in the very financial transactions that we have prohibited if engaged by a U.S. institution. It is time to deal with this gaping loophole. That is why this bill requires all U.S. financial institutions to prevent their foreign subsidiaries from engaging in transactions prohibited to U.S.-based financial institutions.

Madam Speaker, I think it is important that this bill has acquired bipartisan support and shows that Congress comes together to deal with this outrageous invasion, and I urge my colleagues to support this timely legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward