Ukraine Comprehensive Debt Payment Relief 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 rise in support of H.R. 7081, the Ukraine Comprehensive Debt Payment Relief Act.

Last month, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy gave a speech about rebuilding a free, sovereign, and democratic future for his sovereign nation of Ukraine. While it seems distant now, with Putin's war raging, we, in fact, must start to think about the country's eventual rebuilding, recovery, and rebirth.

The United States and our allies must support Ukraine to ensure that its debt repayments don't overwhelm the country while it continues to confront Russia's invasion and keeps up the fight every day, not only on the war front but on the home front in trying to keep its domestic operations functioning.

In fact, Madam Speaker, Ukraine is spending roughly some $5 billion a day in its core functions for government. So while Putin is pulverizing villages, plazas, parks, and ports, the Ukrainian Government presses on, serving its citizens.

But when this war is over, Ukraine will face an enormous financing need that will require international financial institutions to step in with support.

I am pleased to support this legislation, which calls for a suspension of Ukraine's debt service payments and urges debt relief from multilateral and bilateral creditors.

When you think of the hundreds of billions and certainly possibly trillions of dollars of long-term reconstruction that faces Ukraine, you have to recognize the need now for conserving cash flow and conserving its resources.

That rebuilding is going to take immense good government; investment in the country's municipal, health, and education infrastructure; energy resilience; and energy independence. That will be a special opportunity to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Europe.

Prior to the war, Ukraine's economy had stagnated for too long. Therefore, international financial institutions should assess how best to foster Ukrainian industries that can expand exports, earn hard currency, and move forward.

This bill is an important step in our bilateral and multilateral efforts to help Ukraine mush on, get through this war, maintain its services to its citizens, and fight Putin to the end with his leaving the country.

This legislation was reported out of our committee unanimously, and I look forward to its passage today.

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I reiterate my thanks to my friend from Illinois for his work on this bill as one key component of helping Ukraine have the financial wherewithal, the financial resources, to fight back against Putin's illegal invasion.

I remind my colleagues that this debt suspension has a 7-year sunset in the bill, that this is in no way a panacea, but it is an absolutely critical element in the cash flow conservation for the Ukrainians as they attempt to deliver the important services that they have to in their country of over 40 million people while a war wages on their domestic and sovereign ground.

Madam Speaker, let me urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill. I thank the gentleman from Illinois, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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