[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 16, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S1200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              BOLIVAR Act

  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, as the Federal Government 
rightfully continues to levy devastating sanctions on Russia and punish 
Putin and his thugs for their horrific and unlawful invasion of 
Ukraine, we cannot, as the Biden administration has signaled it will, 
choose to empower one dictator so we can punish another.
  Nicoles Maduro is the illegitimate, ruthless dictator in Venezuela. I 
traveled to the Colombia-Venezuela border and saw the suffering of the 
Venezuelan people at the hand of Maduro's regime. I met with Venezuelan 
refugees and got updates from Colombian officials on just how bad 
Venezuelans were being treated by Maduro's tyranny.
  Venezuelan children walk for hours through dense forests, across 
rivers, and over terrorist-controlled territory just to get to a school 
in Colombia for an education and a meal. Mothers with young children 
came to Cucuta to get the only meal they would eat for 3 days. I met a 
pregnant woman who was forced to sleep on the streets of Venezuela 
because she was homeless. Think about that. I am a father and a 
grandfather. Imagine having to look at your 3-year-old child or 
grandchild in the eyes and tell them that they are not going to eat 
today because there is no food.
  The pain, the hunger, the devastation--I cannot believe any human 
being would do this to young children. It was heartbreaking, and it was 
evil. And there is one man responsible for it: Nicoles Maduro.
  Since my visit, things have only gotten worse. In what is one of the 
worst humanitarian crises in Latin American history, more than 6 
million Venezuelans have fled Maduro's oppression in Venezuela since 
2014.
  In 2020, a factfinding mission for the United Nations determined that 
Maduro's regime has engaged in crimes against humanity, including 
unlawful executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and 
torture. The regime has imprisoned hundreds of its political opponents 
and forced countless more into exile. They have used the guise of the 
COVID-19 pandemic to further crack down on journalists and dissenters.
  We know that what has been happening at the direction of Nicolas 
Maduro in Venezuela is horrific. That is why, in 2019, the previous 
administration signed an Executive order issuing a complete economic 
embargo on Venezuela.
  We can all agree that the United States should not be bolstering such 
a disgusting socialist regime, and we cannot forget that any lifting of 
sanctions or show of appeasement toward Maduro's Venezuela will only 
further the suffering there and help its evil allies, like Russia, 
Cuba, communist China, and Iran, which actively support Maduro's 
abuses. So I and many others were deeply disturbed last week when we 
learned that President Biden secretly sent a team to Venezuela--
secretly sent a team to Venezuela--and began negotiations on the 
potential purchase of Venezuelan oil and the easing of sanctions.
  High gas prices caused by President Biden's war on American energy 
and Putin's invasion of Ukraine doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye to 
Maduro's genocide and oppression. We know that funds going to Maduro 
are used for terrorism in our hemisphere, and we know that Venezuela 
and Russia are aligned. If we support one, we support the other. That 
is why, just days after the American team left, the Russian Foreign 
Minister traveled to meet with the Venezuelan Vice President.

  Now, I am glad the administration finally made the decision to stop 
buying Russian oil--I think it came too late--but I am glad the Biden 
administration reluctantly agreed not to purchase oil from Venezuela. 
We shouldn't be supporting Maduro or Putin. It would be foolish if we 
made the mistake of supporting one dictator so we could punish another 
dictator. Maduro has decided to be our enemy, and so is Putin. Neither 
of them deserves our money.
  The Biden administration needs to realize that our enemies are not 
the world's only source of oil and natural gas. America has huge 
supplies of oil and natural gas, and we would have access to those 
resources right now if the Biden administration hadn't spent the past 
year relentlessly trying to destroy the U.S. oil industry.
  On day 1, Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline, and 10,000--10,000--
jobs alongside it were lost. Then he cut off new drilling contracts on 
public lands. The Biden EPA has added one ridiculous regulation after 
another to make it more expensive and harder for American oil 
manufacturers to do business. We went from being nearly energy 
independent and a net exporter in 2019 to begging cartels and ruthless 
dictators for oil. This is not American leadership, and it is not 
American independence.
  It is long past time for the administration to admit that its 
ridiculous Green New Deal policies put our security at risk and hurt 
American families. Prices at the pump are at an alltime high across the 
Nation.
  We should be solving this problem with our own resources and with our 
own workers, not with Maduro and his thugs. That is why I have 
introduced the Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate 
Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act, or the BOLIVAR Act. This bill 
would prohibit Federal Agencies from doing business with the oppressive 
Maduro regime. We can't stand by and let Maduro continue to commit 
genocide against his people, and we have to do everything possible to 
restrict the money Maduro uses to hold on to power and destabilize the 
region.
  When I was Governor of Florida, I signed a bill that prevented State 
agencies from investing in companies doing business with the Government 
of Venezuela.
  In 2019, my amendment to cut off funds to the Maduro regime was 
included in the National Defense Authorization Act.
  In March of last year, my colleagues on the Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs Committee agreed with me, and we unanimously 
passed the BOLIVAR Act through our committee.
  I am thankful for Senators Jacky Rosen, Marco Rubio, and Thom Tillis, 
who have cosponsored this legislation and helped bring this legislation 
this far. I also want to thank Congressman   Michael Waltz for 
introducing the companion bipartisan bill in the House of 
Representatives.
  But we didn't introduce the bill only to have the Biden 
administration begin working with Maduro's thugs and bolstering the 
corrupt Venezuelan oil industry. We are trying to stop that, and no one 
should want to be on the side of Maduro's genocide.
  I am grateful for the bipartisan support this bill has received, and 
I hope that the entire Senate will take a stand to support the fight 
for freedom and the people of Venezuela.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.