[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 162 (Thursday, November 14, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8053-S8054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Cornyn, and Mr. 
        Casey):
  S. 1714. A bill to impose sanctions with respect to Syria, to expand 
existing sanctions with respect to Syria, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am here to talk about the Syria 
Sanctions Enhancement Act of 2013, which I am very proud to introduce 
today, with bipartisan support, joined by my colleagues Senators 
Ayotte, Cornyn, and Casey. This bill is a comprehensive effort to 
update our existing system of sanctions and to reflect the reality that 
President Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime continue to engage 
in a horrible civil war against the Syrian people.
  This bill builds upon the longstanding U.S. sanctions regime against 
Syria begun in 2004 to deal with that government's policies supporting 
terrorism, continuing its occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of 
mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining U.S. and 
international efforts to stabilize Iraq. Following events in Syria 
beginning in March of 2011, a series of executive orders have been 
issued to address the ongoing violence and human rights abuses that 
have been supported and perpetrated relentlessly by the Assad regime. 
Fortunately, Congress has come together on a bipartisan basis to 
sanction many people who are committing terrible atrocities. Now is the 
time to add to those sanctions, to enhance and enforce them, and ensure 
they encompass everyone who is enabling Assad to continue his massacres 
against his own people.
  I have seen some of the effects of this cruel war in person. Earlier 
this year, I traveled to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, with 
Senator McCain and Senator Graham, where I saw firsthand

[[Page S8054]]

how the Assad regime has torn families and lives apart. I returned home 
from that trip convinced, along with my colleagues, that the United 
States cannot stand idle while this war rages on and over 1 million 
Syrians are displaced from their country--a substantial part--the 
estimates are 30 percent of its entire population displaced from their 
homes. I remain convinced the United States should take action not only 
with sanctions but with more effective humanitarian relief. Sanctions 
are an effective way to cut off Assad's financing and therefore his 
source of power. Humanitarian relief is necessary to aid the Syrian 
people who have become refugees in such enormous numbers, even as we 
pursue those sanctions.
  Thankfully, most of the world has come together to denounce and 
isolate Assad for his horrible abuses. Appallingly, though, a few--most 
notably Russian banks--finance Assad and enable his continued 
atrocities.
  In September, Senators Ayotte, Cornyn, Shaheen, and I urged the 
Treasury Department to sanction those Russian banks that are 
perpetrating war in Syria. They are enabling that war as well as the 
atrocities it has spawned, and there is significant evidence that some 
Russian banks, including VTB, VEB, and Gazprombank, have given 
financial cover to Assad and may still be hiding his assets. This bill, 
the Syria Sanctions Enhancement Act, would ensure that those actors do 
not go unpunished. It would sanction financial institutions doing 
business with Assad and his senior officials, and it would also provide 
for a full accounting of all Assad's assets. If Assad is hiding money 
in Russian banks or elsewhere, we need to know where that money is, 
because it rightly belongs to the people of Syria, not to its murderous 
dictator.
  But our actions against Assad must be wider in scope than simply the 
financial sector. Therefore, the Syria Sanctions Enhancement Act looks 
at all the perpetrators of horrific violence who empower Assad and it 
creates sanctions against them. This bill codifies existing executive 
orders that sanction senior Syrian officials and people who sell or 
invest in the Syrian Government. It sanctions anyone who helps the 
Assad government develop weapons of mass destruction or provides them 
with conventional weapons. They are responsible for the majority of 
killings in Syria. They are complicit, and knowingly, purposefully--
they are not merely the enablers, they are the providers of those 
assets used by Assad against his own people.
  We have seen how some unscrupulous arms dealers continue to provide 
arms to the Assad regime that enable his killing. Just yesterday, I was 
pleased to announce that the Defense Department will stop doing 
business with Rosoboronexport, the arms dealer that is selling weapons 
to Assad. Think of it: The U.S. Government was financing, with U.S. 
taxpayer money, purchases of helicopters for the Afghan Government, to 
go to the Afghans with the knowledge that that same Russian export 
agency was selling weapons to Assad. It was stopped, but it is just one 
example of a company that allows Assad to continue killing his own 
people.
  This bill also requires the President to submit a list of people 
responsible for human rights abuses committed against the people of 
Syria. The President must submit a list of those culpable individuals 
who should be held accountable for human rights abuses committed by 
Assad against his own people, and the bill will sanction anyone who has 
provided goods, services or support to enable human rights abuses.
  As my colleagues can see, this bill would do quite a few things, but 
there are a number of important things it will not do. It will not 
prevent the United States from supporting the moderates who are 
fighting against the Assad regime, and it would not jeopardize our 
ongoing efforts to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile; rather, 
it creates a strategic framework to ensure that the prolonged 
dismantling of chemical weapons does not serve as a cover for the 
international community to ignore the brutal reality of these 
slaughters throughout Syria. The bill is carefully crafted to ensure 
that the sanctions do not target the people of Syria themselves who are 
just trying to survive during a difficult time. That is why 
humanitarian relief from this country is of such paramount importance.
  Over the past few months, there has been a lot of debate over what 
the United States should or should not do in Syria.
  Over these past months, the debate has focused on military force and 
many have been hesitant to use such military force in Syria. But that 
does not mean the United States can or should stand idle on the 
sidelines as hundreds of thousands of people are dying and the war 
threatens to create a wider conflict in the Middle East. I think we can 
all agree, on both sides of the aisle, that we should be strengthening 
sanctions against the human rights abusers and supporters of Assad and 
his military that is tirelessly, relentlessly, and purposefully 
murdering his own people.
  This bill is a bipartisan attempt to move forward around the common 
concerns of helping the Syrian people. In the coming days, I look 
forward to a debate on this bill and the way forward in Syria as we 
consider Iran's nuclear program and other important factors. There will 
be a meeting in Geneva upcoming. I view this bill as a means of 
strengthening our government's hand as we seek peace in Syria and seek 
to strengthen those forces in Syria that seek to protect their own 
people.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues on this important effort 
to ensure that the United States continues to stand up and speak out 
strongly on the side of the people of Syria against a regime that is 
striving solely and single-mindedly to keep itself in power at all 
costs, in fact, whatever the cost in the slaughter and displacement of 
its own people.
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