[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 170 (Wednesday, September 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6766-S6768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2894
Mr. President, there is a bill that I filed that imposes CAATSA 228
sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG. Every Democrat in this Chamber has
supported sanctions on Nord Stream 2.
In a moment, I am going to ask for unanimous consent to pass the
legislation simply mandating that the Biden administration, that the
Treasury Department--and this is a Treasury nominee that we are
discussing--follow the law.
If the Senator from Oregon will agree to my unanimous consent request
and that bill passes the Senate, I will not object to this nominee if
the Senator from Oregon is willing to accept that, because that will
move the process along. The objective is to stop this pipeline that
strengthens Putin, weakens Europe, and weakens America.
And, indeed, if we pass the legislation mandating the CAATSA
sanctions, I won't object to this nominee. When that legislation passes
the House, I will lift my hold on another Treasury nominee. And when
the President does the right thing and signs it into law, I will lift
my holds on all the Treasury nominees.
So it is a reasonable, incremental step forward that gives the
Senator from Oregon the chance to demonstrate that when Democrats give
speeches about how Nord Stream 2 is bad for America, bad for Europe,
bad for the environment but good for Russia and Putin, we can now
discover whether or not Democrats actually believe what they have said
in speeches so many times.
Therefore, I ask that the Senator modify his request so that in
addition to confirming the nomination and, as if in legislative
session, that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S.
2894, which is at the desk; that the bill be considered read a third
time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made
and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator so modify his request?
Mr. WYDEN. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, let's understand exactly what is at issue
here. Jonathan Davidson has been nominated to be the Deputy Under
Secretary for Legislative Affairs. In that particular role, he would
not be directly involved in decisions over sanctions, No. 1.
No. 2, when it comes to Nord Stream 2, the Biden administration, to
their credit, has recognized the threat from Russia, but also that the
pipeline is nearly complete and the Trump administration failed to stop
the construction.
Everything my colleague from Texas is raising in his concerns about
Nord Stream 2 is already happening with another pipeline--Turk Stream
2--and my colleague is aware of this. He has been briefed repeatedly.
Now, for those who don't have access to the same kind of information
that my colleague has, gas is already being diverted from Ukraine into
Europe through Turk Stream 2 because the past administration did
nothing about that pipeline either.
The Biden administration has actually put a plan forward to mitigate
the effects of Nord Stream 2 and has received concrete agreements from
the Germans to move Ukraine toward energy independence and address
Russian threats.
I am just going to close with just another dose of good government.
The 9/11 Commission specifically warned about the need to have senior,
confirmed individuals in place to avoid a threat to the homeland. And,
by the way, we did that during the Trump administration. We have far
less people confirmed today than we did in 2001, before 9/11.
In my view, this has got to end. For these reasons, I object to the
UC.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection to the modification is heard.
Is there objection to the original request?
The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. I recognize
that my friend from Oregon has been busy with affairs on the Finance
Committee and so has not been involved in the now 2 years of debate
over Nord Stream 2 on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But,
unfortunately, that has resulted in the Senator from Oregon being given
talking points--perhaps from the administration, perhaps from
colleagues--that are simply factually incorrect. I am sure that is
inadvertent.
The Senator from Oregon just said that there is no way to stop this
pipeline, and that the Trump administration failed to impose sanctions
to stop
[[Page S6767]]
the pipeline. Both of those statements are factually wrong.
I was the author of two separate pieces of legislation that passed
into law concerning Nord Stream 2. Both were bipartisan legislation.
Both, I authored with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, in the
Senate. Both passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from both
Houses of Congress.
The first bill passed in December of 2019. Nord Stream 2 at the time
was more than 90 percent complete, and the argument then that was being
pushed by Russian disinformation and that, sadly, has been echoed by
the Biden administration and was just echoed by the Senator from
Oregon--the argument from Russian disinformation was, the pipeline
can't be stopped; it is too late.
We know that was Russian disinformation because it was conclusively
disproved. Putin stopped building the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline the very
day that the Cruz-Shaheen bipartisan sanctions were signed into law--
not the next day, not the next week. That day, we stopped the pipeline
in its tracks.
But, Mr. President, it was not only stopped for 1 day; it was stopped
for more than a year. For December of 2019, for January, February,
March--every month in 2020, the pipeline lay dormant. It was a piece of
metal at the bottom of the ocean. So the claim that we cannot stop this
pipeline is flat-out false because we did.
By the way, when the Senator from Oregon said the Trump
administration couldn't stop this pipeline, that, again, is just
incorrect. When the President signed the legislation, the pipeline was
stopped that day. It remained stopped for over a year.
When did Putin return to building this pipeline? The date is
important. Putin returned to building the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline on
January 24, 2021, 4 days after Joe Biden was sworn into office. And he
did so because Joe Biden and his team had already conveyed weakness
that they would not enforce U.S. sanctions law and that they would roll
over and give Putin and Russia a generational geopolitical gift. The
only reason Putin began building again is because the Biden White House
defied U.S. law to surrender to Putin.
Now, Joe Biden is entitled to believe that is a good policy idea.
What he is not entitled to do is ignore U.S. law. And the Senator from
Oregon suggests this nominee has nothing to do with that. Well, it is
the Department of the Treasury that is ignoring the CAATSA law, that is
refusing to follow the policy.
Sadly, this moment marks a new threshold in that debate. Up until
this point, it has only been the Biden White House that has been
surrendering to Russia. Sadly, now we have a Democratic Member of the
Senate objecting to legislation to stop the Biden White House from
surrendering to Russia. That is a move in the wrong direction.
That being said, my offer of reasonable compromise remains if we can
come together as we have repeatedly, Republicans and Democrats, to
force the President to obey the law and to stop surrendering to Russia
in a way that hurts America, hurts Europe.
By the way, the European Parliament--my friends on the Democratic
side of the aisle like to consider themselves lovers of our friends in
Europe. The European Parliament voted on Nord Stream 2. The vote was
roughly 500 to 50 against Nord Stream 2 because it makes our European
allies subject to energy blackmail by Putin and his successor
dictators.
This is bad for America, bad for Europe, bad for peace, bad for the
environment, but good for Vladimir Putin and for Russia. Joe Biden is
mistaken to be committing this surrender, and my friend from Oregon
errs in joining Joe Biden in that surrender to Russia.
I hope the Senator from Oregon reconsiders. I hope Congress comes
together again. But as long as that does not happen, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection was heard.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am going to be very brief and then make a
unanimous consent request.
Again, we have a difference of opinion with respect to the facts.
That is what the Senate is all about--real debate. In a moment, I am
going to ask unanimous consent to put into the Record at this point an
article from just a few days ago from the Wall Street Journal that
makes the truth about Nord Stream 2 AG very clear.
In effect, in the Wall Street Journal article that we are going to
put into the Record, the pipeline owner said last week that
construction on the pipeline has been completed.
There is no reason to object to this very talented individual, John
Davidson, to head this important post after he got a 28-to-0 vote in
the Senate Finance Committee.
I think this article in the Wall Street Journal that I have just
asked to be printed in the Record at this point in the debate, so we
can make sure the facts are correct, supports our basic proposition on
this side of the aisle.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13]
Senate Republicans Vow To Block Treasury Nominations Until Nord Stream
II Firm Is Sanctioned
(By Ian Talley and Brett Forrest)
Washington.--Senior Senate Republicans on Monday threatened
to indefinitely hold up the nominations of five top Treasury
Department officials if the Biden administration doesn't
blacklist the firm managing Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline
project.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said
they are prepared to approve the nominations, including two
national security posts that oversee sanctions and
counterterror finance, if the Treasury Department blacklists
Russia-owned Nord Stream 2 AG.
The Biden administration has implemented sanctions against
several firms that have provided support to the project but
not against Nord Stream 2 AG, saying that it would irritate
relations with critical ally Germany and do little to stop
the project, given that it was near completion. Gazprom,
Russia's state-controlled gas-export monopoly and the
pipeline owner, said last week that construction on the
pipeline had been completed. But there are still bureaucratic
hurdles that have to be overcome to get it running.
Nord Stream 2 is designed to accommodate the transmission
of 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually, the company said.
Republicans say they are concerned the pipeline project
bolsters Europe's reliance on Russian energy and gives Moscow
leverage over Washington's trans-Atlantic allies. By holding
up the five top Treasury nominations, they hope to pressure
the administration into sanctioning the managing firm and
stymie the pipeline's startup.
``The administration's so-called `deal' with Germany hands
Vladimir Putin a geostrategic victory, entrenches corrupt
Russian influence in Europe, and drastically weakens the
security of Ukraine, Poland, and other states on the
frontline of Kremlin aggression,'' Mr. Toomey, the ranking
member of the Banking Committee, and Mr. Cruz said in a
letter to the chairmen of the Senate Banking and Foreign
Relations Committees.
A Treasury spokeswoman said that while the department has
experienced career staff who are experts in their fields,
``The Senate should move quickly to confirm these nominees
who are integral to disrupting illicit finance, combating
terrorism, and administering sanctions.''
Nord Stream 2 AG officials didn't respond to a request for
comment.
The Banking Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the
nominations of Brian Nelson as the Treasury's undersecretary
for terrorism and financial intelligence and Elizabeth
Rosenberg for the role of assistant secretary for terrorism
financing.
Without Republican support in the committee, Democratic
lawmakers face long odds getting the nominations approved.
That could leave empty the post responsible for overseeing
U.S. sanctions policy, extending a vacancy that has already
lasted nearly two years. The nominations of Jonathan Davidson
as deputy undersecretary, Lily Lawrence Batchelder as
assistant secretary for tax policy and Benjamin Harris as
assistant secretary for economic policy all have been
committee-approved, but full Senate ratification has been
held up by Mr. Cruz.
The Texas Republican said he's prepared to lift his holds--
as well as those he has on nearly two dozen State Department
appointments--if the administration commits to sanctioning
the Russian project management firm.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), the chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, didn't immediately respond to a
request for comment. The chairman of the Banking Committee,
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio), directed questions to the
State Department and White House. ``Decisions on sanctions
regarding the NS II pipeline are made by the
administration,'' a spokeswoman for Mr. Brown said.
The Republican senators say a federal law called the
Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act,
signed into law in 2017, mandates blacklisting companies or
individuals involved in evasion of the act's sanctions. They
say the provisions allow for the administration to delist the
company, but that opens the door for Congress to vote on the
issue.
[[Page S6768]]
Republican aides said the law mandating sanctions had
bipartisan support, fueled by concern the Trump
administration would treat Moscow too favorably. Given that
some Democratic lawmakers opposed the Biden administration's
Nord Stream 2 decision, those aides said Congress could vote
to keep the firm on Treasury's blacklists.
The risk of sanctions, the aides said, could dissuade
companies from providing certification.
In November, Norwegian certification company DNV suspended
its work on Nord Stream 2 after assessing that its activities
could expose the company to sanctions under Protecting
Europe's Energy Security Act, a 2019 U.S. law specific to the
pipeline, a company spokesman said.
Last week, Germany's energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur
received Nord Stream 2 AG's application for an operating
license. The company has four months to engage an independent
certification company to complete an assessment of the
pipeline's operational integrity.
Once a certification is complete, the German regulator
would send its decision to the European Commission, but this
isn't the final hurdle to gas flows. Initial deliveries could
face additional, unrelated delays. Last month, a German court
rejected Nord Stream 2 AG's bid to bypass a European Union
pro-competition regulation mandating that a gas producer and
the company that transports the gas be separate entities.
One of the congressional aides said the Biden
administration, besides worrying about creating diplomatic
friction with allies, may also be concerned about setting
precedent regarding sanctions, because Treasury officials
also could have to sanction other companies.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I don't have objection to the article being
included in the Record, but I would note that, once again, the Senator
from Oregon is limited by the fact that he has not participated in the
debate on this in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the last 2
years, because what he stated in his first remarks was that there was
no way to stop the pipeline initially and the Trump administration
failed to do so. That was factually incorrect.
We stopped the pipeline the day President Trump signed the bipartisan
Cruz-Shaheen sanctions into law. That was December of 2019, and the
pipeline was stopped for over a year. As I mentioned, on January 24 of
2020, 4 days after Joe Biden was sworn into office, Putin began--
returned to building the pipeline because Biden had already telegraphed
his surrender to Russia.
Now, what my friend from Oregon just said is--he repeated news
coverage that the pipeline is now, today, complete. That is, in fact,
correct, that because Biden surrendered on this point, Putin went all
in and finished the pipeline. But this is where being part of the
Foreign Relations Committee discussion matters, because even though the
pipeline is now physically complete, it does not mean it is operative.
After the pipeline is physically complete, there are months of
certifications required and multiple authorities.
The legislation that Congress passed as a bipartisan matter also
imposes sanctions on any entity, any company that certifies the
pipeline. Indeed, the position of the Biden State Department has been
that even when the pipeline is complete, we can stop it from ever going
online by stopping certification.
So the legislation that I just asked for consent would do exactly
that--it would stop certification, and it would leave it as a hunk of
metal rather than an operating pipeline enriching Putin at the expense
of Europe and America. So we still have time to stop this.
One final observation. This morning, I spent a couple of hours in a
classified briefing on this topic, on Nord Stream 2. A question that I
posed to the Biden State Department--I said: What exactly did Joe
Biden, did the administration get in exchange for surrendering to
Russia in a way that will impact this country and Europe for decades to
come?
The answer, I will say, was altogether unsatisfactory. The only thing
the Biden White House got was good will from Angela Merkel, whose party
was just defeated resoundingly this past weekend in the election. So
Angela Merkel is on her way out. We got good will from someone who will
very soon no longer be the leader of Germany.
Instead, the German people voted in--elevated the Greens, who were
vocally opposed to the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. So the new government in
Germany is not going to appreciate Biden surrendering to Putin in a way
that hurts the environment and hurts Germany. But we have alienated the
Ukrainians; we have alienated the Poles; we have alienated Eastern
Europe. The European Union voted 500 to 50, roughly, against Nord
Stream 2. We got nothing, and we hurt U.S. jobs.
This is foolhardy, and I am hopeful that the Senate will exercise our
historical role over foreign policy and prevent a President and an
administration from making this mistake.
I would note, Secretary of State Blinken and the State Department
argued vociferously in the interagency process to sanction Nord Stream
2 AG, and it was the political operatives at the Biden White House who
overrode the State Department. They should not have done so, and today
the Department of the Treasury should follow the law and impose
sanctions under CAATSA or delist them and trigger a vote in this
Congress.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
(The remarks of Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Lee
pertaining to the introduction of S. 2895 are printed in today's Record
under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')