[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 10 (Thursday, January 17, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H692-H696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DISAPPROVAL OF PRESIDENT'S PROPOSAL RELATING TO APPLICATION OF CERTAIN 
                               SANCTIONS

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
joint resolution (H.J. Res. 30) disapproving the President's proposal 
to take an action relating to the application of certain sanctions with 
respect to the Russian Federation.
  The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
  The text of the joint resolution is as follows:

                              H.J. Res. 30

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, Congress 
     disapproves of the action relating to the application of 
     sanctions imposed with respect to the Russian Federation 
     proposed by the President in the report submitted to Congress 
     under section 216(a)(1) of the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 
     2017 on December 19, 2018, relating to terminating sanctions 
     imposed on En+ Group plc (``En+''), UC Rusal plc (``Rusal''), 
     and JSC EuroSibEnergo (``ESE'').

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Engel) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.


                             General Leave

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5

[[Page H693]]

legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on H.J. Res. 30, disapproving the 
President's proposal on certain sanctions on the Russian Federation, 
under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that we are in this situation. It is 
the result of the Trump administration, again, trying to make an end 
run around Congress on an issue as important as Russia sanctions.
  On December 19 of last year, the Treasury Department notified 
Congress of its intention to relax sanctions against three corporations 
tied to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and close associate of 
Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration may have a perfectly 
legitimate reason for easing those sanctions. But the reason we are on 
the floor today is that we just don't know. And, under the law, we have 
very little time left to get the answers we need.
  The sanctions we are dealing with today were imposed under CAATSA--
the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act--the bill we 
passed 1\1/2\ years ago to, among other things, slap sanctions on 
Vladimir Putin's cronies.
  The law is written so that Congress would be able to step in if we 
thought any administration could be making a mistake in waiving or 
easing sanctions. The Republican majority at the time wrote strict and 
complex provisions for exercising that oversight, allowing only 30 days 
to pass a measure that could reverse such a decision.
  Again: the Trump administration announced its plans to ease these 
sanctions on December 19, 30 days ago, in the middle of the holidays, 
just before the President shut the government down, at the end of the 
last Congress, and before committees in this Congress have had a chance 
to organize and look into this very serious issue. This timing leads me 
to believe that the administration was trying to jam this decision 
through so Congress would not be able to act.
  We ask the administration to explain this decision. Their answers 
were, frankly, inadequate. We asked the administration to pump the 
brakes on easing these sanctions so we could review the decision 
further. They simply wouldn't.
  So, with that 30-day window closing, we are now forced to bring this 
measure to the floor to try to block the decision. It is too bad, 
really. I would rather the administration respected Congress enough to 
allow us the time to address our concerns. And, again, the rules for 
this were put into effect by the Republican majority in the last 
Congress, and they are good rules. I would rather they hadn't dropped 
this announcement when they did--that is the White House--so that our 
committees could hold hearings and do our work the way we want to.
  But with the threat that Russia poses to the United States, to our 
friends and allies, to democracy around the world, Congress cannot just 
look the other way when the administration rushes a decision like this. 
There are too many open questions about whether Deripaska will still 
control the companies that these sanctions address.
  So, we need to move this resolution of disapproval before the clock 
runs out, and I ask all Members on both sides of the aisle to support 
it today.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this joint resolution.
  I have long maintained that provocations by Vladimir Putin and his 
cronies require a decisive and forceful response by the United States.
  As the former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I love the 
effort to strengthen our cyber defenses so that Russia cannot attack 
our political institutions and undermine our democracy. I have seen the 
classified reports and I know the threats. I take a back seat to no one 
in confronting Russia's malicious activities. The whole world has seen 
Russia's aggression in Ukraine and its support for Assad's brutality in 
Syria.

                              {time}  1130

  Bottom line, Putin's Russia is an adversary and must be treated as 
one. An effective foreign policy needs to use all economic and 
diplomatic tools to confront belligerent behavior by a foreign power. 
Those who threaten America and our allies need to understand that they 
will pay a heavy price so long as those threats persist.
  As someone who believes that partisanship should stop at the water's 
edge, as the chairman often says at our Foreign Affairs Committee 
briefings, I don't believe that this issue should divide our two 
parties. In fact, it should unite us.
  This also means that Congress must guard against playing partisan 
politics with sanctions. We must impose them when they are warranted, 
and we must allow them to be lifted when they have accomplished their 
goals.
  I think many Members find Treasury's case for delisting these 
particular Russian companies to have an argument, but not very 
compelling.
  For example, some still have questions about whether moving some of 
the oligarch shares to a family charity and to a sanctioned Russian 
bank will sufficiently sever the control and enrichment that he 
currently enjoys, and whether we can adequately monitor that with 
transparency.
  Even though we may have a good-faith disagreement about the wisdom of 
this particular delisting at this point in time, I do want to commend 
the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. They 
implement and police many of the sanctions that Congress enacts, and 
there are good reasons for their bipartisan reputation for integrity 
and professionalism.
  But because we cannot be sure that we have removed the heavy hand of 
this Russian oligarch, I cannot support the delisting of these 
sanctioned entities at this point in time. Therefore, I support this 
joint resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly), who is a valued member of the Foreign Affairs 
Committee.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend, the distinguished 
chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
  I listened to my friend from Texas, who I admire, but he is defending 
the indefensible. Partisan? I rise strongly in support of the H.J. Res. 
30 today disapproving the President's unimaginable proposal to lift 
sanctions on three companies affiliated with a Russian gangster 
oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
  Congress overwhelmingly passed the Countering America's Adversaries 
Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, in August of 2017, to hold Putin and his 
cronies accountable for Russian interference in our election, Russian 
invasions of sovereign territories of other nations, and its other 
malign behavior.
  Under that authority, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign 
Assets Control imposed sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally, 
and several of his companies, including United Company RUSAL, EN+ 
Group, and JSC EuroSibEnergo. In doing so, the Trump Treasury 
Department stated Deripaska has said he does not separate himself from 
the Russian state.
  Deripaska has been investigated for money laundering and has been 
accused of threatening the lives of business rivals, illegally 
wiretapping a government official, extortion, organized crime, and 
racketeering. This is the man you want to lift sanctions on?
  In addition, we have recently learned that Deripaska worked closely 
with Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, including on a 
lobbying project that Manafort said would greatly benefit the Putin 
government.
  Manafort reportedly also offered to give Deripaska private briefings 
about the Trump Presidential campaign. Does this sound like someone 
deserving of exemption from U.S. sanctions?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from Virginia.
  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, apparently, it does to the Trump 
administration, which has agreed to lift sanctions on three of his 
companies in exchange for Deripaska dropping his ownership

[[Page H694]]

stake from 70 to 44.95, never mind that the new chairman of United 
Company RUSAL's board, Jean-Pierre Thomas, has himself defended the 
Russian illegal occupation, condemned by the world, of Crimea, part of 
sovereign Ukraine.
  That is exactly why Congress required in CAATSA a congressional 
notification before sanctions could be lifted to prevent this President 
from allowing his inexplicable bromance with Putin to supersede U.S. 
national security interests.
  Now is the time not to ease pressure on Putin. I urge my colleagues 
to support H.J. Res. 30.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Neal), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee 
and my classmate in Congress.
  Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, 1988 was a good year.
  Mr. Speaker, today we vote on H.J. Res. 30 to disapprove the 
President's proposal to terminate sanctions on Russian companies, 
including United Company RUSAL. My colleagues and I have serious 
concerns about many of the questions that, to this date, remain 
unanswered from the Trump administration.
  Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is a sanctioned individual known as a 
bad actor with close ties to the Putin administration. The agreement 
reached between the Department of the Treasury and these entities seems 
to allow Deripaska to maintain considerable control and influence of 
Russian energy holding companies.
  A week ago, I asked the Treasury Department to delay the lifting of 
these sanctions to allow for Congress to conduct meaningful oversight. 
My staff informs me that the Treasury Department has confirmed receipt 
of my letter, but to this moment, we have not received any word from 
Treasury on their intentions. Given an expiration date of tomorrow, it 
is unlikely that we will.
  As Members of this Congress, our duty to the American people is to 
exercise the oversight that ensures that the administration's actions 
are, indeed, legitimate. We have a duty to ensure that this 
administration takes a firm stand on bad behavior by the Russian 
Government.
  I think some of the more important elements of this consideration 
could be taken care of with just a few months of delay while we 
exercise our constitutional responsibilities.
  The Russian Government has, time and again, prevented us from doing 
what I have just described. We intend here to proceed, even in the 
aftermath of this decision today and what the Senate did yesterday, to 
consider and to take a look at this act that we believe today violates 
the intention of our congressional responsibilities.
  The malicious cyberinterference that has attempted to subvert Western 
democracies, including ours, needs to be fully examined. I urge my 
colleagues to vote for this joint resolution.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Schiff), the chairman of the important Intelligence 
Committee.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise 
in support of the joint resolution, which disapproves the removal of 
sanctions against three companies owned by the Russian oligarch and 
Putin crony, Oleg Deripaska. Mr. Deripaska's complicity and Putin's 
efforts to undermine our democracy and those of our allies is well 
known, and this is without the benefit of what the special counsel has 
investigated and thus far uncovered.
  Simply put, the Treasury Department has not provided Congress with 
convincing evidence that the deal reached with Mr. Deripaska truly ends 
his control over the companies. And the Treasury Department has not 
provided Congress with convincing evidence that Mr. Deripaska will not, 
in fact, benefit financially from the divestiture of these businesses.
  These sanctions were imposed last year on Mr. Deripaska and these 
companies, over Mr. Deripaska's malign efforts and the Kremlin's malign 
efforts to interfere in our democracy, as well as the efforts to invade 
Russia's neighbor and the continuing destabilization of Ukraine.
  The simple reality is, having imposed these sanctions as a deterrent, 
nothing has changed in the Kremlin's behavior to warrant the relaxation 
of these sanctions.
  Sanctions are imposed for a reason. The reason these were imposed was 
because of the malevolent actions of Mr. Deripaska and the Kremlin. 
They are intended to influence the Kremlin's behavior. So what has 
changed that merits now the relaxation of these sanctions? The answer 
is nothing.
  The Russian actions in the last election continued, through the 
manipulation of social media, to meddle in our democratic affairs. 
Violence along the line of contact between Russia and Ukraine continues 
and within Ukraine continues. Nothing has changed in the Kremlin 
behavior.
  Nothing has changed to warrant Treasury lifting these sanctions, and 
so I join my colleagues.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from California.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues on a bipartisan basis, 
and I thank my colleague from Texas for his support to disapprove of 
this relaxation of sanctions on Russia and Mr. Deripaska, and to urge 
the rest of the Congress to join us.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Waters) the chair of the Financial Services Committee.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, you have heard all of the facts about what 
is happening in the Treasury Department. I do not understand, for the 
life of me, why there is any elected official who would support 
delisting these companies and Deripaska.
  We are dealing with the enemy. We are in an investigation. Deripaska 
is a criminal. He is closely aligned with Putin. We know everything 
about him, and we know that he would benefit from this delisting.
  He would retain 45 percent of the shares or the ownership in these 
companies. Of course, he will use that to basically pay off the debts 
to the bank that he owes.
  I don't know why we have Republicans who don't understand this. Where 
are they? Why are they not down here defending what they are going to 
do with their vote? Why are they not down here explaining why somehow 
they are not putting this democracy first?

  This is not the first sanction that they are going to try to delist. 
Oh, they are coming with another in a few days. It has to do with 
Jamaica, and I know all about that. And they are going to keep coming.
  We should be implementing sanctions. This is about the invasion and 
the attack on Crimea. This is about all of the other atrocities that 
have occurred and have been implemented by Putin and the oligarchs of 
Russia.
  We need to stand up, and we need to say that, yes, we are going to 
have sanctions. They are going to be implemented. We are going to make 
sure that we don't align ourselves with the people who are undermining 
this democracy.
  They have hacked into our DNC. They have hacked into our State 
electoral systems. And here we have people who are willing to say that 
is okay; that is all right; let them continue to do what they do.
  The Republicans who did not vote on the Senate side need to be called 
out. This is serious business, and I want the Republicans to face up to 
it. Don't hide. Come on down here and defend your views.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New York has 8 minutes 
remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 17 minutes remaining.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I just want to be clear, as the Republican leader of the 
Foreign Affairs Committee, that I support this resolution. I am not 
sure if my opening statement was properly heard by the other side of 
the aisle, but I join my

[[Page H695]]

colleagues on the other side and support this resolution in a 
bipartisan manner, as it should be, against our enemy Russia, Putin, 
and the oligarchs.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Doggett).

                              {time}  1145

  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to my colleague and 
neighbor, Mr. McCaul, I hope that means that every Republican, none of 
whom are on the floor here with him to explain their position on this, 
will join us on this important vote, because this sanctions law against 
Russians was enacted over President Trump's objection. The purpose was 
to deter Russian aggression against us and our allies, not to yield the 
right-of-way.
  But now the administration is lifting sanctions on a thug who is 
linked at the hip to Vladimir Putin and who only engages in more 
wrongdoing.
  Let's not aid this one-way gift to Putin, a gift that was 
deliberately slipped under the Christmas tree at the Kremlin on the eve 
of congressional departure so we could have as little oversight as 
possible.
  Secretary Mnuchin suggested he was open to meaningful additional time 
for us to review this, but he has gone radio silent. He calculated that 
there were enough House enablers to rubber-stamp this sordid deal.
  We sought a classified intelligence assessment of whether sanctioned 
Putin buddy, Oleg Deripaska, would continue to control the world's 
largest aluminum company after these sanctions were lifted.
  Leaders on both the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence 
and Senate Special Committee on Intelligence have expressed their 
national security concerns about this deal, but Trump wants to us to 
rely on tweets, not intelligence; on fantasy, not reality. If only he 
were as eager to reopen this government for American businesses and 
American citizens as he is to reopen this sanctioned Russian company.
  Trump provides sanction relief for a sham deal whereby this one thug 
transfers his shares to his personal foundation, a kind of Trump 
foundation-type-group, his ex-wife, and a sanctioned Russian bank.
  Treasury refuses to identify for us any of these new, so-called 
``independent'' directors. But what we do know is that the chair of one 
of these companies is someone who is under investigation by the British 
Parliament and who cannot see classified information, and the chair of 
another one is a cheerleader for the Russian invasion and annexation of 
Crimea and their war with Ukraine.
  All of this misconduct is happening against the backdrop of a 
President who has increasingly become a loud megaphone for Russian 
propaganda and attacking our most trusted allies, turning Syria over to 
Putin, suggesting we withdraw from NATO, praising the Soviet invasion 
of Afghanistan with a distorted history. Each day of chaos is another 
day when Vladimir Putin's investment in the election of Donald Trump 
pays him bigger dividends in driving to undermine Western democracy and 
our way of life.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Doggett) an additional 15 seconds.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, let us send a strong, bipartisan message, 
not just to the White House, but to the Kremlin, by rejecting this 
favoritism toward Putin.
  Let's vote today as Members of the United States Congress, not the 
Russian Duma.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my 
time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes).
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate the advocacy of 
Chairwoman Waters, but this is fundamentally not a partisan issue, and 
I appreciate the ranking member making the point. This is a 
reputational issue, and I want everyone in the Chamber to understand 
that this is about the reputation of the United States, about the 
Congress, about the Treasury, and about each individual Member who 
votes today.
  This is a complicated deal. I have spent hours understanding this 
deal.
  But there is a big question that every Member ought to ask 
themselves: Is this the moment to relax sanctions on a Russian company; 
on a Russian oligarch?
  Is this the moment to sign off on a deal that allows an oligarch to 
hand his shares to a Russian bank, which is also sanctioned and 
controlled by the Russian Government?
  At the end of this deal, if this deal goes through, Mr. Deripaska 
will continue to own and vote 35 percent of the shares of this company. 
Mr. Speaker, you can control the company with 35 percent of the shares. 
But an additional 28 percent of those shares will be owned and 
controlled by affiliates of Mr. Deripaska.
  Now, Treasury says that doesn't matter because there will be somebody 
independently voting those shares. I have asked three times now, and 
Treasury has not told me who those people are.
  So what is the rush?
  There is no problem in the aluminum markets today. The price of 
aluminum today is lower than it was before this company was listed. 
This is reputational.
  The architect of this deal, Lord Barker of Battle, is a British peer 
who has been denied access to classified information in the Parliament 
and who is under investigation by the Parliament because of possible 
ties to the Russians.
  So I will just close, Mr. Speaker, by making this point: there is no 
rush. I have become an expert on this deal. Members who vote against 
this resolution, if Deripaska turns out to be worse than we think he 
is, if Lord Battle turns out to be worse than we think he is, and if 
the Russians and Deripaska continue to control this company after this 
vote, you too will become an expert on this deal, and not in a good 
way.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New York has 2\1/4\ 
minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 16\1/2\ minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. McCAUL. I continue to reserve, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who is our majority leader and the author of this 
joint resolution.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding, and I 
thank the ranking member for his leadership as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I join Mr. Himes in saying this is not a partisan issue. 
This is an issue of America and whether or not we are going to hold 
accountable those who would threaten and undermine the interests of the 
United States.
  I thank Mr. McCaul for his principled leadership on this issue, and I 
thank Chairman Engel for his continuing focus on making America secure.
  Mr. Speaker, I am offering this joint resolution today because it is 
deeply concerning that the Treasury Department would terminate 
sanctions on companies owned by Oleg Deripaska.
  Mr. Deripaska is a Russian oligarch--meaning essential is very, very 
wealthy--and is a very close associate of President Vladimir Putin.
  The businesses he controls were sanctioned under the Russian 
sanctions legislation the Congress enacted through bipartisan action in 
2017. As I have sponsored numerous bills with Mr. McCarthy when he was 
the majority leader to make sure that the Congress was on record and 
had policies which would staunch the attacks on our country and on our 
security by the Russians.
  I was deeply disappointed that the Republican Senate rejected a 
similar resolution yesterday. When I say they rejected it, the majority 
of the Members of the Senate--57 to be exact--supported this 
resolution.
  I talked to Secretary Mnuchin yesterday and the day before, and I 
asked Secretary Mnuchin: Given the concerns about this legislation, 
about this withdrawing of sanctions on RUSAL, that they give us until 
February 28 to have hearings to reflect upon and have further 
discussions with the administration and make a determination whether we 
thought this action was in the best interests of our country.

[[Page H696]]

  Unfortunately, when the Senate failed to get the 60 votes they needed 
to bring cloture so that they could get to final consideration of the 
bill, the Treasury Department decided to go forward.
  It is crucial that the Congress, however, make clear that the allies 
of Vladimir Putin, no matter how wealthy or how powerful they are, face 
appropriate consequences for their actions against America's security 
and democratic institutions. That is what this is about.
  As Mr. Himes said, it is not a partisan vote. As a matter of fact, in 
my view, if Barack Obama were President of the United States today, 
this resolution would receive unanimous support from my Republican 
colleagues and overwhelming, if not unanimous, support from my 
Democratic colleagues.
  Now, I understand the Treasury Department's goal in this instance. It 
is trying to remove Mr. Deripaska from control of these companies. That 
is a good objective. I am also sensitive to the economic concerns of 
our European partners who are dependent on aluminum manufactured by 
RUSAL, which is the Russian aluminum company, one of the largest in the 
world and almost, maybe not a monopoly, but an overwhelming share of 
the aluminum market internationally.
  However, I do not have confidence that this specific deal 
accomplishes that objective. I believe many of the Members of this 
House on both sides of the aisle share this lack of confidence. There 
are way too many remaining questions for Congress not to act on this 
resolution.

  For example, I am not convinced that Mr. Deripaska would fully 
relinquish his control of RUSAL under this deal--as a matter of fact, I 
think it is doubtful that he would do so--or that the Treasury 
Department used its full leverage in this negotiation.
  I am also concerned, Mr. Speaker, that Mr. Deripaska would receive 
massive financial benefit from this deal--this is supposed to be a 
sanction--massive financial benefit, nearly unprecedented for a 
sanctioned entity.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope our action today will force the Treasury 
Department to engage more thoroughly with Congress on explaining its 
actions on this deal and to seek a better one. I think their intent was 
an honest intent. I am doubtful they achieved it. I therefore urge my 
colleagues to join me and, hopefully, in a bipartisan way supporting 
this resolution and I call on the Senate to reconsider its position.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire of the gentleman from Texas 
if he is prepared to close.
  Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and, yes, I am 
prepared to close.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, I was in the October 2016 classified briefings on the 
interference by the Russians in our Federal elections and in our 
Presidential elections. I condemned it at that time, and I continue to 
condemn it. I supported sanctions then, and I support those sanctions 
today.
  For that reason, Mr. Speaker, until we have been fully satisfied by 
the Treasury Department, I support this resolution, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time to 
close.
  Mr. Speaker, let me first say to Mr. McCaul that I am very happy to 
hear those words come out of his mouth. As you know, we have had a 
tradition of bipartisanship on the Foreign Affairs Committee with 
Chairman Royce and myself, and now with me as chairman and Mr. McCaul. 
So I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for speaking out forcefully 
and saying the right thing.
  That is why Congress overwhelmingly passed sanctions on Russia in 
2017, because Members of both parties understand the threat that Russia 
and Putin pose. From the illegal annexation of Crimea to the war in 
eastern Ukraine to the support to Bashar al Assad to the attack on our 
own democracy in 2016, Russia is clearly a major adversary that needs 
to be dealt with strongly.
  So when we see the administration--and I would say this about any 
administration, Democrat or Republican--when the administration appears 
to go easy on one of Putin's closest pals, we understandably have 
serious questions. We need to see the whole picture, and right now we 
are not.
  Congress cannot be left out of decisions this important. That is 
something I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle understand, 
and I hope we can send the administration a strong bipartisan message 
to that effect. This resolution represents Congress doing our job, 
exercising oversight and using checks and balances provided in the 
Constitution.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support it, and I yield back the balance 
of my time.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, today the House voted on a motion to 
suspend the rules and pass H.J. Res. 30, disapproving the President's 
proposal to take an action relating to the application of certain 
sanctions with respect to the Russian Federation (Roll Call no. 42).
  I strongly support this legislation that prevents the Trump 
administration from terminating certain sanctions on three companies, 
including aluminum giant Rusal, controlled by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian 
oligarch and close ally of Vladimir Putin. These sanctions were imposed 
under a comprehensive sanctions law passed by Congress in response to 
Russian interference in the 2016 election.
  There are far too many unanswered questions about this decision by 
the Trump administration. Congress must fully vet whether these 
companies are no longer owned and operated by Deripaska or his 
compatriots. Russia must be held accountable for their actions.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the joint resolution, H.J. Res. 30.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

                          ____________________