Relating to A National Emergency Declared By the President on February 2011

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of July 13, 2023, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 70) relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 25, 2011, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution.

H.J. Res. 70 would terminate Executive Order No. 13566, which established a state of emergency in Libya due to Qadhafi's attacks on his own people, a deterioration of security in Libya, and prolonged violence that caused serious destabilization.

This executive order was enacted during the first Libyan civil war, was kept in place throughout the second Libyan civil war, and remains critical now as Libya has yet to make a transition to stable governing.

On each annual renewal of the emergency, President Obama, President Trump, and now President Biden have carefully reviewed the circumstances in Libya and each time determined that we need to maintain associated sanctions. It is simple to see the issues in Libya are ongoing, and it is not partisan to know sanctions are a key element.

One of the most critical sanctions that would be removed if Congress passed this joint resolution is against Saif Qadhafi, one of Qadhafi's sons, who has well-known links to the Wagner Group and is wanted for murdering Libyan civilians. Sanctions related to Libya are still, to this day, critical to our national security.

In the last 2 years alone, our Libya sanctions have blocked approximately $18 million from reaching hostile foreign actors. The forced termination of the national emergency regarding Libya would lead to the immediate release of millions of dollars for wanted war criminals backed by the Kremlin, like Saif Al Islam Qadhafi. Again, this money would empower Putin's regime and secure Russia's interests in Libya, a strategically important country along NATO's southern flank.

I also, again, want to mention the importance of the U.S. state- sponsored terrorism fund. There is no question that this money is better served by helping 9/11 families than quite literally financing terrorists. Like most Americans, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I was in my first week of classes as a freshman at Suffern High School.

September 11 had a profound impact on our Nation, but particularly impacted the residents of New York. Thousands of families have faced the repercussions of that day, especially the families of those who worked tirelessly on the pile, trying to find survivors and helping others find closure.

Every September 11, I attend numerous 9/11 ceremonies with the families and our first responders who sacrificed so much, and still today we are adding names to the various monuments of 9/11 first responders who are losing their lives to 9/11-related illnesses. These sanctioned moneys are used to help them and their families.

We will never forget that tragedy, and it is abhorrent that any of these resolutions are coming before us today in this manner.

Unfortunately, the alarm bells being raised by some proponents of these measures are demonstrably wrong and misleading.

The national emergencies at issue today rely on IEEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which does not provide the President with any domestic statutory powers like testing chemical weapons or seizing radio stations unless the President issues another executive order specifically invoking those emergency powers.

If the President were to do so, which no President has ever done, the National Emergencies Act gives Congress the expedited privileged right to disapprove that power, which we undoubtedly would do.

Furthermore, there is no power to draft Americans into Active Duty. That was terminated in 1978. In contrast, let me remind this body, the legal certainty we are facing is that terminating these emergencies would immediately hand many millions of dollars to terrorists and war criminals and would eliminate an important source of compensation to American victims of terrorism.

Now, I remind my colleagues, with respect to Muammar Qadhafi's continued inclusion, if Muammar Qadhafi was delisted, all of his assets would be bequeathed to his children. While he has been dead for over a decade, as everyone knows, you can't take your money with you when you go, so we are preventing that money from going toward funding terrorism.

While I appreciate this dialogue, it is abundantly clear that the consequences of passing this resolution as well as the others are extensive. Amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Wagner Group's continued war crimes across the globe, and the ongoing instability in Libya, we must keep this state of emergency and associated sanctions in place.

I again reiterate the point that with regular order, this should be going through the Foreign Affairs Committee.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source