Sanctions

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, we are faced today with two urgent and compelling foreign policy priorities: ending the war in Iran and winning the war in Ukraine.

The war in Iran is increasing the world price of oil, enriching Putin's Russian wanton war machine. On February 27, just before the start of the U.S.-Iran war, oil was at $70 a barrel. Last week, it was up to $100 a barrel. And if the Strait of Hormuz is closed again, experts warn prices could surge up to $125 a barrel, driving up fuel, fertilizer, and food costs. And with every $10 increase in global oil prices, Putin's war machine receives a windfall of more than $1.5 billion a month--$1.5 billion a month--in extra revenue. If oil reaches $125 a barrel, as many experts predict, Putin's windfall would be $9 billion a month or $108 billion a year.

It is a very compelling reason why, to win the war in Ukraine, we must end the war in Iran. It is also a reason why taking up the Graham- Blumenthal Russia sanctions bill is urgent. From the first day of Putin's savage attack on Ukraine, no one has been a more stalwart defender of Ukrainian victory than our departed colleague Senator Lindsey Graham. He and Senator Blumenthal had a compelling insight: You hurt Russia by going after the buyers of Russian oil. And the way to go after the buyers was by imposing a tariff on the major buyers of Russian oil, making it too costly for those buyers to continue purchasing it. It would starve the Russian beast of the revenue fueling its cruel aggression.

The language in that original bill by Senators Blumenthal and Graham was specific and limited. Buyers of Russian oil would be targeted and tariffed. It was a limited and specific delegation of congressional tariff authority that could be used for the limited and sole purpose of cutting off oil revenue to Russia--all for the purpose of assisting U.S. efforts to help defend Ukrainian freedom and repel Russian aggression. That is why the original Graham-Blumenthal bill had 84 bipartisan cosponsors, myself enthusiastically among them.

But we are now on the threshold and are now considering a new version of the Graham-Blumenthal bill, one that Senator Graham and, we understand, the White House have signed off on. But we have to remind ourselves, in any delegation of congressional tariff authority to the Executive, the statutory language must be specific, and it must be limited to the purpose of squeezing Russia and its oil revenues. To achieve Senator Graham's goal--starving Russia of its oil revenues-- care must be taken in the drafting to guarantee that outcome and that outcome only and not language that would facilitate other outcomes.

In broad terms, the revised Graham-Blumenthal bill does two things. No. 1, it imposes tariffs at the discretion of the Executive of up to 100 percent on the top five purchasers of Russian oil and gas. No. 2, it allows the Executive to impose 100 percent tariffs on the top five countries ``facilitating'' the evasion of sanctions on Russian oil.

(Ms. LUMMIS assumed the Chair.)

Madam President, my concern is with this second provision. There is a fatal absence of specificity as to what countries could be considered ``facilitators'' or what conduct or the extent of that conduct that could constitute being a ``facilitator.''

In the bill text, the new tariffs would apply to ``countries in which . . . foreign persons are knowingly engaging in transactions, activities, or services that circumvent, or assist any third party to circumvent, any sanction related to oil that originated in the Russian Federation.''

This language is very general. In effect, this would be a blanket delegation of congressional tariff authority to the Executive. In the name of targeting a ``facilitator,'' the Executive could target and tariff any country for any reason under the methodology of this language.

Congress cannot and Congress must not give this type of blanket delegation of tariff authority to this Executive--or, for that matter, to any Chief Executive.

We are all very much indebted to Senator Graham and Senator Blumenthal for their relentless pursuit of a Russian sanctions bill and to the many others who have fought to keep Ukraine at the center of the Senate's agenda. Colleagues like Senator Shaheen, Senator Wicker, Senator McConnell, Senator Whitehouse, Senator Risch, and Senator Murkowski, among others, have all been critical to protecting freedom in Ukraine and America's national security interests in Europe.

But in all my own personal conversations with Senator Graham and, I suspect, in all the discussions my colleagues had with Senator Graham, he was always focused on specific and binding language that would enable and it would require the Executive to impose tariffs on buyers of Russian oil, not on undefined ``facilitators.''

Senator Blumenthal, who spoke to Senator Graham just before he died, has informed us that Lindsey was over the moon about this bill. But the Presiding Officer and I both know Senator Graham was really unique among us. Despite the open-ended language about ``facilitators,'' Senator Graham had a unique relationship with President Trump, and if any among us could have persuaded President Trump to carry out Congress' narrow and limited intent, it was Senator Graham.

But without Senator Graham, our language must specify our intent and do so with absolute clarity: Go after the buyers. That was Senator Graham's goal, and we must have language that makes achieving that goal real.

That is why, when we take up the Graham-Blumenthal bill, I will offer an amendment to strike the overly vague delegation of tariff authorities to also target ``facilitators'' of sanctions evasions.

As currently written, the ``facilitator'' provision enables the Executive, with full congressional authorization, to impose any tariffs on any country, for any reason, so long as the Executive labels the tariffed country a ``facilitator.''

If we delete the ``facilitator'' provision, as I propose, we do achieve Senator Graham's goal without his bill being used for any other purposes. In doing so, the bill will retain the original tariff authority that only targets buyers of Russian oil.

Senator Graham and many of us, myself included, agreed about maximizing the imperative of sanctions and tariff tools to hurt Putin and stop his aggression against Ukrainian civilians, and I hope we can honor Senator Graham by quickly coming together to pass a bipartisan bill that will specifically and effectively target the companies and countries that are buying the oil that Putin is using to pay for the missiles and the bombs that are raining down on the innocent people of Ukraine.

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