A bill to require a review of sanctions with respect to Russian kleptocrats and human rights abusers.

Mr. President, I rise today to sound the alarm on the national security threat that corruption represents and to echo the determination President Biden made earlier this year that corruption constitutes a core national security threat to the United States.

Along with many of my colleagues in this body, I have worked long and hard to fight corruption, which undermines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and is behind so many of the persistent problems that we seek to solve.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists--involving 150 media outlets, including the Washington Post and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project--conducted an investigation of corruption leading to the publication of the Pandora Papers.

The Pandora Papers reveal the astonishing extent to which questionable financial flows are entering our country and that of our allies. Those warrant further review. Although we had known that such a system of offshore financing exists, it is still shocking to see the scale of the corruption, documented in great detail by emails, contracts, and other documents.

Foreign dictators, their associates, and other foreign officials have stolen untold sums--billions of dollars--and moved that dirty money into our democracies, into our real estate, bank accounts, trusts, and other financial instruments. This is a profound threat to our national security. It hollows out the rule of law abroad and now threatens to hollow out the rule of law at home.

Foreign kleptocrats cannot do this alone. Although the kleptocrats may steal abroad, to taint our political system with that money requires the assistance of enablers--American lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, real estate professionals, and the like--who put aside any moral qualms that they may have

about working for the enemies of democracy to obtain a small slice of ill-gotten gains.

The Pandora Papers make clear that U.S. enablers apparently play an outsized role in helping to move stolen assets from dictatorships and struggling democracies into consolidated democracies--an appalling and corrupt transfer of wealth from those who need it the most to those who have no need for it at all.

All told, the Papers include documents from 206 U.S. trusts in 15 States and Washington, DC, and 22 trustee companies.

While there is obviously much legitimate business to be done in creating and managing trusts and investments--and we should be careful about overstating or generalizing without careful examination of each case--it appears that some Americans have knowingly played a significant role in facilitating corruption.

The Papers include 300 political leaders and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories--although no Americans and exceedingly few Western Europeans. This comes as no surprise. The movement of corrupt money runs east to west, not west to east. It is the tragedy of the post-Cold War world that corruption has come west along with dirty money rather than democracy going east.

There are names in the Papers that also come as no surprise, such as Vladimir Putin's cronies Konstantin Ernst and Gennady Timchenko. Both are included on Alexei Navalny's list of 35 human rights abusers and kleptocrats. Timchenko is already under U.S. sanctions, although Ernst is not. Now would be a good time to consider imposing sanctions on him. The Aliyevs of Azerbaijan also make an appearance. They collectively own a real estate empire in London worth $700 million. A Chinese Communist Party official also was found to have used an offshore company to trade in U.S. stocks.

Now, here is the good news. It doesn't have to be this way. The triumph of global kleptocracy is not inevitable. We can fight back, and we are.

Never before has there been an American administration so focused on countering such corruption or a Congress so creative and aggressive in facing down the threat. President Biden is the first President ever to declare countering corruption to be a core U.S. national security interest.

Congress has formed a bipartisan Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy. The House recently passed no fewer than six different counterkleptocracy measures in the National Defense Authorization Act, which included bills I authored in the Senate. Now, it is incumbent upon us to do the same in the Senate and pass these bills.

First is the Combating Global Corruption Act, S. 14, which would create a public and tiered country-by-country reporting requirement on compliance with international anti-corruption norms and standards. Those countries in the lowest tier of this report would have their leadership evaluated for Global Magnitsky sanctions. Then there is the Global Magnitsky Reauthorization Act, S. 93, which would reauthorize and enhance these critical sanctions for targeting global kleptocrats and human rights abusers--exactly the sort of people identified by the Pandora Papers.

Just before the recess, I introduced S. 2986, a new measure with Senator Wicker, that would require the administration to evaluate the Navalny 35 for Global Magnitsky Sanctions. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden earlier this year, called for the United States to impose sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials, whom it credibly accuses of political persecution, human rights abuses, and corruption. I agree with the Navalny team and urge the administration to move forward on this request.

All three of these measures have been included in the House version of the NDAA--the National Defense Authorization Act--and I urge my colleagues to include them in the Senate version as well.

The Pandora Papers are a wake-up call to all who care about the future of democracy. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, it is time for democracies to band together and demand an end to these unprecedented corruptions that has come to the defining feature of the global order. We must purge the dirty money from our system and deny kleptocrats safe haven. It will take hard decisions and difficult reforms, but we can get this done. We already have a bipartisan commitment momentum in order to accomplish these results. Now it is time that we see this through in the U.S. Senate.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to sound the alarm on the national security threat that corruption represents and to echo the determination made earlier this year by President Biden that corruption constitutes a core national security threat to the United States.

Along with many colleagues in this body, I have worked long and hard to fight corruption--which undermines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and is behind so many of the persistent problems that we seek to solve.

The recently released Pandora Papers investigations--coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and involving 150 media outlets, including The Washington Post and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project--reveal the astonishing extent to which questionable financial flows are entering our country and those of our allies. This warrants further review. Although we had known that such a system of offshore finance exists, it is still shocking to see the scale of the corruption, documented in great detail by emails, contracts, and other documents. Foreign dictators, their associates, and other foreign officials have stolen untold sums-- billions of dollars--and moved that dirty money into our democracies, into real estate, bank accounts, trusts, and other financial instruments.

This is a profound threat to our national security. It hollows out the rule of law abroad and now it threatens to hollow out the rule of law at home.

Foreign kleptocrats cannot do this alone. Although kleptocrats may steal abroad, to taint our political system with that money requires the assistance of enablers--American lawyers, accountants, trust, and company service providers, real estate professionals, and the like--who put aside any moral qualms they may have about working for the enemies of democracy to obtain a small slice of the illgotten gains.

The Pandora Papers make clear that U.S. enablers apparently play an outsized role in helping to move stolen assets from dictatorships and struggling democracies into consolidated democracies--an appalling and corrupt transference of wealth from those who need it most to those who have no need at all.

All told, the papers include documents from 206 U.S. trusts in 15 States and Washington, DC, and 22 trustee companies. While there is obviously much legitimate business to be done in creating and managing trusts and investments--and we should be careful about overstating or generalizing without careful examination of each case--it appears that some Americans may have knowingly played a significant role in facilitating corruption.

The papers include 300 politicians and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories--though no Americans and exceedingly few Western Europeans. This comes as no surprise. The movement of corrupt money runs east to west, not west to east. It is the tragedy of the post-Cold War world that corruption has come west along with dirty money rather than democracy going east. There are names in the papers that also come as no surprise--Putin cronies Konstantin Ernst and Gennady Timchenko are both named. Both are included on Alexey Navalny's list of 35 human rights abusers and kleptocrats. Timchenko is already under U.S. sanctions, though Ernst is not. Now would be a good time to consider sanctions on him.

The Aliyevs of Azerbaijan also make an appearance. They collectively own a real estate empire in London worth $700 million. A Chinese Communist Party official also was found to have used an offshore company to trade in U.S. stocks.

However, there is good news. It does not have to be this way. The triumph of global kleptocracy is not inevitable. We can fight back, and we are. Never before has there been an American administration so focused on the countering corruption or a Congress so creative and aggressive in facing down the threat. President Biden is the first President ever to declare countering corruption to be a ``core U.S. national security interest.'' Congress has formed a Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy. The House recently passed no fewer than six different counterkleptocracy measures in the National Defense Authorization Act, which included bills of mine. Now it is incumbent upon us in the Senate to do the same.

First is the Combating Global Corruption Act that would create a public and tiered country-by-country reporting requirement on compliance with international anti-corruption norms and standards. Those countries in the lowest tier of this report would have their leadership evaluated for Global Magnitsky sanctions.

Then there is the Global Magnitsky reauthorization that would reauthorize and enhance these critical sanctions for targeting global kleptocrats and human rights abusers--exactly the sort of people identified in the Pandora Papers. I am also proposing a new measure-- and I am introducing it today--that would mandate the administration evaluate the ``Navalny 35'' for Global Magnitsky sanctions. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden earlier this year, called for the United States to impose sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials, whom it credibly accuses of political persecution, human rights abuses, and corruption. I agree with the Navalny team and urge the administration to move forward on this.

All three of these measures have been included in the House National Defense Authorization Act, and I urge my colleagues to include them in the Senate National Defense Authorization Act.

The Pandora Papers are a wake-up call to all who care about the future of democracy. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, it is time for democracies to band together and demand an end to the unprecedented corruption that has come to be the defining feature of the global order. We must purge the dirty money from our systems and deny kleptocrats safe haven.

It will take hard decisions and difficult reforms, but we can do it. We already have the bipartisan momentum. Now we only have to see it through.

Mr. President, I rise today to sound the alarm on the national security threat that corruption represents and to echo the determination made earlier this year by President Biden that corruption constitutes a core national security threat to the United States.

Along with many colleagues in this body, I have worked long and hard to fight corruption--which undermines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law and is behind so many of the persistent problems that we seek to solve.

The recently released Pandora Papers investigations--coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and involving 150 media outlets, including The Washington Post and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project--reveal the astonishing extent to which questionable financial flows are entering our country and those of our allies. This warrants further review. Although we had known that such a system of offshore finance exists, it is still shocking to see the scale of the corruption, documented in great detail by emails, contracts, and other documents. Foreign dictators, their associates, and other foreign officials have stolen untold sums-- billions of dollars--and moved that dirty money into our democracies, into real estate, bank accounts, trusts, and other financial instruments.

This is a profound threat to our national security. It hollows out the rule of law abroad and now it threatens to hollow out the rule of law at home.

Foreign kleptocrats cannot do this alone. Although kleptocrats may steal abroad, to taint our political system with that money requires the assistance of enablers--American lawyers, accountants, trust, and company service providers, real estate professionals, and the like--who put aside any moral qualms they may have about working for the enemies of democracy to obtain a small slice of the illgotten gains.

The Pandora Papers make clear that U.S. enablers apparently play an outsized role in helping to move stolen assets from dictatorships and struggling democracies into consolidated democracies--an appalling and corrupt transference of wealth from those who need it most to those who have no need at all.

All told, the papers include documents from 206 U.S. trusts in 15 States and Washington, DC, and 22 trustee companies. While there is obviously much legitimate business to be done in creating and managing trusts and investments--and we should be careful about overstating or generalizing without careful examination of each case--it appears that some Americans may have knowingly played a significant role in facilitating corruption.

The papers include 300 politicians and public officials from more than 90 countries and territories--though no Americans and exceedingly few Western Europeans. This comes as no surprise. The movement of corrupt money runs east to west, not west to east. It is the tragedy of the post-Cold War world that corruption has come west along with dirty money rather than democracy going east. There are names in the papers that also come as no surprise--Putin cronies Konstantin Ernst and Gennady Timchenko are both named. Both are included on Alexey Navalny's list of 35 human rights abusers and kleptocrats. Timchenko is already under U.S. sanctions, though Ernst is not. Now would be a good time to consider sanctions on him.

The Aliyevs of Azerbaijan also make an appearance. They collectively own a real estate empire in London worth $700 million. A Chinese Communist Party official also was found to have used an offshore company to trade in U.S. stocks.

However, there is good news. It does not have to be this way. The triumph of global kleptocracy is not inevitable. We can fight back, and we are. Never before has there been an American administration so focused on the countering corruption or a Congress so creative and aggressive in facing down the threat. President Biden is the first President ever to declare countering corruption to be a ``core U.S. national security interest.'' Congress has formed a Caucus against Foreign Corruption and Kleptocracy. The House recently passed no fewer than six different counterkleptocracy measures in the National Defense Authorization Act, which included bills of mine. Now it is incumbent upon us in the Senate to do the same.

First is the Combating Global Corruption Act that would create a public and tiered country-by-country reporting requirement on compliance with international anti-corruption norms and standards. Those countries in the lowest tier of this report would have their leadership evaluated for Global Magnitsky sanctions.

Then there is the Global Magnitsky reauthorization that would reauthorize and enhance these critical sanctions for targeting global kleptocrats and human rights abusers--exactly the sort of people identified in the Pandora Papers. I am also proposing a new measure-- and I am introducing it today--that would mandate the administration evaluate the ``Navalny 35'' for Global Magnitsky sanctions. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, in a letter addressed to President Joe Biden earlier this year, called for the United States to impose sanctions on dozens of Russian oligarchs and government officials, whom it credibly accuses of political persecution, human rights abuses, and corruption. I agree with the Navalny team and urge the administration to move forward on this.

All three of these measures have been included in the House National Defense Authorization Act, and I urge my colleagues to include them in the Senate National Defense Authorization Act.

The Pandora Papers are a wake-up call to all who care about the future of democracy. Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, it is time for democracies to band together and demand an end to the unprecedented corruption that has come to be the defining feature of the global order. We must purge the dirty money from our systems and deny kleptocrats safe haven.

It will take hard decisions and difficult reforms, but we can do it. We already have the bipartisan momentum. Now we only have to see it through.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Fair Adjudications for Immigrants Act. This legislation would ensure that immigrants with criminal convictions do not face barriers to naturalization and experience unfair removals after their convictions have been dismissed, expunged, or pardoned by a Federal or State locality.

What the bill would do. The Fair Adjudications for Immigrants Act is important in ensuring immigrants are not unjustly treated after receiving a criminal charge that never resulted in a conviction or after a previous conviction no longer stands.

Specifically, this bill would ensure that immigrants whose convictions have been overturned are not penalized when they are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction or for sentences that have been fully suspended by the sentencing court.

By redefining the term ``conviction'' in the Immigration and Nationality Act, this legislation also clarifies that any adjudication that is appealable or in which the court has issued a judicial recommendation against removal or probation without judgment will not count as a conviction.

The bill would apply retroactively to any conviction, adjudication, or judgement entered before, on, or after the enactment of this bill. Finally, it establishes that an immigrant cannot be removed on the basis of a conviction if the sentencing court issues a recommendation against removal to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Why the bill is needed. Under current law, rather than having access to many rehabilitative measures that are afforded in the criminal justice system, immigrants with dismissed criminal charges, suspended sentences, or criminal convictions that are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction still face severe consequences in the immigration court system.

Some of the immigration consequences that immigrants can face include unjust removals, mandatory detention, and barriers to naturalization.

It is imperative that we resolve this disparity between immigration and criminal law to prevent those immigrants with dismissed criminal charges or with convictions that are no longer considered valid in the court of conviction from continuing to face punitive immigration consequences.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.