[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 62 (Thursday, April 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2058-S2059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Permanent Normal Trade Relations

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am going to be very brief, and I want to 
echo what the majority leader said, particularly with respect to 
revoking permanent normal trade relations with Russia.
  The Senate, and those who are following this, should understand that 
in just a few minutes, the Senate is going to take another crucial step 
in bringing every tool of economic pressure to bear on Vladimir Putin 
and his oligarch allies. Ending normal trade relations hammers home 
that Putin has made Russia into a full-fledged pariah state.
  As the leader noted, Americans have been watching these atrocities--
these brutal acts perpetrated by Vladimir Putin--day after day--on TV, 
phones, and the like--and now the Senate is saying ``there is going to 
be clear, clear, clear evidence that what he has done has forfeited the 
right to normal trade relations.''
  And I will just wrap up by way of saying that when we get done, on 
the Senate Finance Committee, we are going to continue to work in a 
bipartisan way to send Putin additional messages that are going to rein 
in his economic power.
  In particular, I think it is high time to take away the subsidies he 
gets from American taxpayers for his war machine. That happens when you 
have American companies doing business in Russia. They pay taxes to the 
Russian Government, and they get foreign tax credits. I don't believe 
the people of Michigan or Oregon or anywhere else believe that their 
tax dollars--their hard-earned tax dollars--should be used to subsidize 
Putin's war machine.
  So this is a very important step today towards making sure, as I 
indicated, we are putting in place every single economic tool to hammer 
Putin and his oligarchs.
  I urge my colleagues, as Senator Schumer has just done, to vote yes, 
and I also want to thank the ranking member of the Finance Committee. I 
talked to him a few minutes ago. He continues to do everything he can, 
every step of the way, to make this a bipartisan effort.
  That is the message we ought to send. I urge colleagues to vote yes 
when we take away normal trade relations from Russia here in a few 
minutes.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL (Ms. Rosen). Madam President, I ask unanimous

[[Page S2059]]

consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.