Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Illinois for managing the bill. It is also good to be on this House floor again talking on an issue that we share in common, and that is the importance of sanctions being successful as a part of our strategy to get Mr. Putin out of Ukraine. So it has been very good to partner with my friend from California (Mr. Sherman) on H.R. 7066, the Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act.

Madam Speaker, U.S. financial institutions are already prohibited from engaging in transactions with sanctioned Russian entities, but H.R. 7066 extends that prohibition to entities owned or controlled by U.S. financial institutions as well. This is a commonsense provision, and it has helped other sanctions programs be more successful, and I cite particularly the efforts to isolate Iran and North Korea.

Under the President's ongoing Russia measures, anyone providing support to a sanctioned person runs the risk of being sanctioned themselves. We know that U.S. financial institutions are fully aware of us. Congress expects their full compliance and to be watchful on their affiliates that may also do business with Russia.

As the U.S. continues to pressure the Putin regime, we must seek and prevent opportunities for Russia to find loopholes for non-U.S. financial institutions.

I am glad to see that our current sanctions on Russia are making it more difficult for Moscow to find alternatives to Western banks. However, opportunities remain for us to tighten these multilateral sanctions and increase pressure on Russia, particularly in Russia's energy exports. Both the United States and Europe continue to provide carve-outs for energy transactions, and the next step on the sanctions ladder is to close these loopholes so that Russia cannot receive hard currency by selling oil and gas.

I hope that Republicans and Democrats can work together to pursue this kind of policy and continue to collaborate on how to tighten the financial noose around Putin. Just as we worked on this bill together, I hope Members on both sides of the aisle will come together and support the work of my friend from California.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I thank my good friend, Mr. Sherman, on this bill, and let me remind the leaders of the Kremlin that Americans on both sides of this aisle are unified in our efforts to cut off the economic flow to the Kremlin, and we share that objective with our friends in Europe. When I was in Europe a few weeks ago, just before Easter, leaders in both Poland and Romania reiterated that they are prepared to go further in economic sanctions against the Putin regime and Moscow.

So it needs to be clear that Americans, while we are fully on board with our transatlantic friends in constraining Mr. Putin, the announced sanctions by President Biden and the sanctions that we are talking about today are just a beginning point as this Congress works to provide lethal assistance with 31 countries to help the Ukrainians defend themselves. This Congress helps provide humanitarian assistance, along with countries from all around the world and the United Nations, to help the Ukrainians have the medicine, food, and material that they need to survive in this really outrageous and unprecedented attack by the Russians on the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

So it is important to note here that we are here not for the last time to talk about how to fine-tune, how to tighten, and how to direct our economic sanctions more successfully.

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from California for our collaboration on this. I encourage all Members on both sides of the aisle to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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