Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus Act. It is very important to highlight here that we are do include Belarus in this act. Unfortunately, under the leadership of President Lukashenko, Belarus allowed Russians to place ballistic rockets and shell fellow Slavs, orthodox Christians in Ukraine for weeks. The people of Belarus need to understand that their leader is part of what is happening in this genocide in Ukraine, and we cannot create a loophole where Putin is going to use Belarus to funnel moneys through them.

This is very important legislation also to send a message to Putin and his allies that the West is serious. It is not a temporary thing. They cannot just go kill a bunch of people, destroy cities, kill women and children, and then go back and have business as usual.

Congress is sending a very strong message. If they want to have peace, it better be soon, and they better get to the table and stop this insanity in killing of the Ukrainian people.

I also want to share some of the concerns that the Congressman shared regarding the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. I concur with him that these definitions have to be tightened and to broaden these definitions is giving too much power to the executive branch. It is not what Congress should do because every time we give too much power, we are not able to effectively have our oversight function.

So I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation but also work with the Senate to make sure that we can fix our concerns. I am very appreciative that we are able to come on a bipartisan basis and send a very strong message.

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