[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 177 (Thursday, October 7, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7001-S7002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. PADILLA (for himself, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Booker, Ms. Warren,
Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Markey, Mr.
Whitehouse, and Ms. Baldwin):
S. 2954. A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to alter
the definition of ``conviction'', and for other purposes; to the
Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. PADILLA. 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.
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By Mr. THUNE (for himself and Ms. Smith):
S. 2959. A bill to provide that, due to disruptions caused by COVID-
19, applications for impact aid funding for fiscal year 2023 may use
certain data submitted in the fiscal year 2022 application; to the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of
the bill be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 2959
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Supplemental Impact Aid
Flexibility Act''.
SEC. 2. IMPACT AID PROGRAM.
Due to the public health emergency directly relating to
COVID-19 and notwithstanding sections 7002(j) and 7003(c) of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
7702(j), 7703(c)), a local educational agency desiring to
receive a payment under section 7002 or 7003 of such Act (20
U.S.C. 7702, 7703) for fiscal year 2023 that also submitted
an application for such payment for fiscal year 2022 shall,
in the application submitted under section 7005 of such Act
(20 U.S.C. 7705) for fiscal year 2023--
(1) with respect to a requested payment under section 7002
of such Act--
(A) use the data described in section 7002(j) of such Act
relating to calculating such payment that was submitted by
the local educational agency in the application for fiscal
year 2022; or
(B) use the data relating to calculating such payment for
the fiscal year required under section 7002(j) of such Act;
and
(2) with respect to a requested payment under section 7003
of such Act--
[[Page S7002]]
(A) use the student count data relating to calculating such
payment that was submitted by the local educational agency in
the application for fiscal year 2022, provided that payments
for fiscal year 2023 shall be calculated by the Secretary
using the expenditures and rates described in clauses (i),
(ii), (iii), and (iv) of section 7003(b)(1)(C) of such Act
that would otherwise apply for fiscal year 2023; or
(B) use the student count data relating to calculating such
payment for the fiscal year required under section 7003(c) of
such Act.
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By Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. Wicker):
S. 2986. A bill to require a review of sanctions with respect to
Russian kleptocrats and human rights abusers; to the Committee on
Foreign Relations.
Mr. CARDIN. 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.
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