Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act of 2022

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7066) to require United States financial institutions to ensure entities and persons owned or controlled by the institution comply with financial sanctions on the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus to the same extent as the institution itself, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and include extraneous material thereon.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7066, the Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act, sponsored by Congressman Brad Sherman.

Within days of Russia's unjustified and inhumane invasion of Ukraine, President Biden demonstrated strong leadership when he brought our allies together to impose the toughest set of sanctions ever against a major world economy.

The effectiveness of these sanctions will depend in large part on strong enforcement of these restrictions and prohibitions by the U.S. and by our allies.

U.S. financial institutions, including banks, credit card companies, broker-dealers, money service businesses, cryptocurrency exchanges, and mobile wallets, play a pivotal role in the implementation of U.S. sanctions. There is some ambiguity, however, as to whether compliance by U.S. financial institutions extends to foreign entities that they own or control.

Congressman Sherman's bill will clarify that all foreign operations of U.S. financial institutions, including any subsidiaries domiciled outside the United States, must fully comply with all existing sanctions imposed in response to Russia's brutal war against Ukraine.

I thank Congressman Sherman for his good work on this bipartisan bill, as well as Congressman Hill for partnering with him. This is a commonsense clarification to ensure that we are doing all that we can to degrade the Russian economy until it is no longer able to fund its incursion into Ukraine and to show Russia that there are consequences for its actions. For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Agriculture,

Washington, DC, May 6, 2022.

Hon. Maxine Waters,

Chairwoman, Committee on Financial Services, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairwoman Waters: This letter confirms our mutual

understanding regarding H.R. 7066, the Russia and Belarus

Financial Sanctions Act. Thank you for collaborating with the

Committee on Agriculture on the matters within our

jurisdiction.

The Committee on Agriculture will forego any further

consideration of this bill so that it may proceed

expeditiously to the House floor for consideration. However,

by foregoing consideration at this time, we do not waive any

jurisdiction over any subject matter contained in this or

similar legislation. We request that our Committee be

consulted and involved as this bill moves forward so that we

may address any remaining issues in our jurisdiction. The

Committee on Agriculture also reserves the right to seek

appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any

House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation

and ask that you support any such request.

We would appreciate a response to this letter confirming

this understanding with respect to H.R. 7066, and request

that a copy of our letters on this matter be published in the

Congressional Record during Floor consideration.

Sincerely,

David Scott,

Chairman.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. The Russia and Belarus Financial Sanctions Act was passed by our committee with bipartisan support. It provides an important clarification to ensure financial institutions follow the law and implement sanctions on Russia and Belarus.

Madam Speaker, I urge Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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.

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.

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.

Madam Speaker, I was not present for the following Roll Call votes. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows:

Roll Call No. 152, On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass bill (S.66) South Florida Clean Coastal Waters Act, I would have voted YEA;

Roll Call No. 153, On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended bill (H.R. 7077) Empowering the U.S. Fire Administration Act, I would have voted YES;

Roll Call No. 154, On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended bill (H.R. 1437) PRECIP Act, I would have voted YES;

Roll Call No. 155, On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass bill (S.1872) United States Army Rangers Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act, I would have voted YEA;

Roll Call No. 156, On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended bill (H.R. 5911) Fair Hiring in Banking Act, I would have voted

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.