[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H3668-H3670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RELATING TO A NATIONAL EMERGENCY DECLARED BY THE PRESIDENT ON MAY 11,
2004
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of
the House of July 17, 2023, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res.
79) relating to a national emergency declared by the President on May
11, 2004, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House on July
17, 2023, the joint resolution is considered read.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 79
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That pursuant
to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C.
1622), the national emergency declared by the finding of the
President on May 11, 2004, in Executive Order 13338, is
hereby terminated.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The joint resolution shall be debatable for
30 minutes equally divided among and controlled by Representative
McCaul of Texas, Representative Meeks of New York, and Representative
Gaetz of Florida, or their respective designees.
The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), the gentleman from
Minnesota (Mr. Phillips), and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz)
each will control 10 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from South Carolina.
General Leave
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent
that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and
extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the measure
under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from South Carolina?
There was no objection.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time
as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution. The Syria
National Emergency is the basis for sanctions against the regime of the
murderous dictator Assad and his comrades.
For over a decade, the Assad regime, war criminal Putin, and the
terrorist regime in Tehran have committed brutal atrocities against the
people of Syria. The civilian mass murder in Aleppo should never be
forgotten, which was facilitated by war criminal Putin.
In the last 5 years, sanctions issued pursuant to this authority have
prevented over $100 million from reaching more than 100 dangerous
entities and individuals affiliated with the Assad regime and its
backers, including ISIS middlemen.
This murderous regime has supported international terrorism,
committed innumerable atrocities against civilians, assisted with the
manufacture of ballistic missiles, and developed weapons of mass
destruction.
Let me be clear: Some of the people sanctioned under this national
emergency quite literally developed chemical weapons, and we know when
President Donald Trump determined that chemical weapons were used, he
immediately responded with a direct attack on the Assad regime.
If we overturn this national emergency, those sanctions will
automatically and immediately disappear. The criminals behind Assad's
weapons of mass destruction program should not be able to access credit
cards to do business with Americans.
These sanctions are more than just an essential tool in countering
the war criminal Bashar Al Assad. As previously mentioned, most of the
proceeds from violations of the sanctions, including these sanctions on
Syria, go directly to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism
fund, which benefits American victims of terrorism, including our
Nation's 9/11 families.
In addition, this resolution would terminate sanctions on people like
George Haswani, who the U.S. Treasury has named, and I quote: ``A
Syrian businessman who serves as a middleman for oil purchases by the
Syrian regime from ISIL.''
It would also lift sanctions on a number of Assad officials who
support Hezbollah terrorists who threaten daily the people of Israel
from Lebanon.
Today, Assad is not only a war criminal, but also the head of a
narco-state. His regime spreads both the malign influence of his
Iranian puppet masters and the scourge of drugs throughout the region.
The Assad regime is a critical player in the growth of regional and
global trade of the narcotic Captagon. Removing these sanctions would
be a gift to Assad, Putin, and the Iranian regime, as the civilized
world confronts the unprovoked attacks on democracies which have rule
of law being attacked by the dictators with rule of gun.
Terminating this national emergency would immediately terminate
sanctions on hundreds of Assad cronies and financiers, developers of
Syria's chemical weapons, terrorist-supporting middlemen who threaten
America and Israel, and drug traffickers involved in the Captagon
trade.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the Assad regime, its
dictatorship, and support the people of Syria to oppose this
resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 79, which terminates
the national emergency pertaining to actions and policies that have
existed for years, enjoyed bipartisan consensus, and underpinned a
significant portion of the U.S.-Syria sanctions architecture.
More specifically, this measure targets an executive order that was
issued based on legislation that Congress passed with broad bipartisan
consensus: The Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty
Restoration Act, which over 400 Members of the House, including 200
Republicans, voted in support of.
For over 12 years, Syria's Assad regime has perpetrated a heinous
campaign of genocide and unrelenting violence against the Syrian
people, who rose up for their basic rights and freedoms after years and
years of oppression.
This unceasing campaign of brutality has been aided and abetted by
Assad supporters in Tehran and Moscow, and amounted to countless war
crimes and the most egregious violations of international humanitarian
law of which I am aware.
Relevant to this legislation, the Assad regime has served as a
fertile and pliant jurisdiction for Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies
to shuttle arms throughout the region, as well as grow in numbers and
capabilities in support of the Assad regime's actions against the
Syrian people.
[[Page H3669]]
At the same time, actors ranging from the remnants of ISIS to other
violent extremist organizations like al-Qaida-affiliate Hurras al Din,
and others continue to terrorize civilians, and threaten to
reconstitute and, again, use Syria as a launchpad for attacks into
Europe and the rest of the world.
Active U.S. efforts to counter and degrade these very groups and
support networks--those targeted by the sanctions--would be undermined
by abruptly repealing and stripping away such important authorities.
Preemptively abandoning these policy tools and sanctions authorities
through a rushed, poorly conceived legislative effort undermines our
national security interests and those of our closest partners.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
join me in opposition to this measure, and I reserve the balance of my
time.
{time} 1530
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I brought a war powers resolution to the floor this
Congress to get U.S. troops out of Syria, arguing that the United
States, being excessively entangled in a great power competition in
Syria wasn't making life better for Syrians, it wasn't playing out to
our benefit in the sphere of great power competition, and that it left
U.S. servicemembers and contractors as sitting ducks.
Following that vote, which I lost overwhelmingly in a bipartisan
fashion, sadly, there were casualties; there was the death of an
American, because we have now become the neighborhood crime watch of
certain areas in Syria where there are oil rigs. That is what it is all
about.
I now come to the floor with this resolution to repeal a 2004
emergency vis-a-vis Syria. Now, it is supposed to be voted on by
Congress every 6 months thereafter, but we have been derelict in our
duty in doing so.
I am glad that today we are bringing forward a number of these
emergency resolutions that have been dormant slush funds, spending
untold sums of money with no transparency as to how much is going into
the Syrian emergency.
How about this rule for how the House thinks about emergencies:
Nothing is allowed to be an emergency for 20 years. If it were really
an emergency, there probably would have been some cataclysmic event of
Biblical proportion before the 20 years. If it is still an emergency 20
years later, it is a chronic condition, and the United States cannot be
the world's policeman and we cannot be the world's piggy bank.
Now, if the principal argument against my resolution is that my
resolution is soft on Assad, well, the logic that undergirds that is
that somehow the 2004 resolution was this great anti-Assad tool that we
must have, that we must maintain, to beat Assad.
Look around, Mr. Speaker. Assad has never been stronger. So if this
2004 resolution was Assad kryptonite, it has been the worst Assad
kryptonite you can ever imagine. It has malfunctioned.
I think we ought to repeal this emergency. We have sought
transparency to see how much money has been going pursuant to it. We
don't know the answer to that question.
To the extent that there are sanctions that we still want to
maintain, whether there are the other national emergencies that exist
targeted at terrorism generally, at Russia, at Iran, we have the
Magnitsky Act and there are all kinds of other authorities for the
President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the
Department of Commerce, even the DOD weighs in, and the State
Department, regarding sanctions regimes.
This is not a vote to lift sanctions and then hope for the best with
some pretty gnarly Syrians. In fact, it is us standing up to do our
job, and that is what we should do in repealing this 2004 resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Sherman).
Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, this is indeed a resolution to roll back
sanctions and then hope that maybe we will reimpose them on some other
basis not detailed by the gentleman from Florida. This is not some
meaningless resolution to feel good about or to message about. It has
practical consequences.
How many more people would Assad have been able to kill if he had the
chance to cooperate economically with businesses here in the United
States? How many other dictators would feel free to develop chemical
weapons, would feel free to murder their own people and feel that they
would face no economic consequences from the United States?
Our policy has not turned Syria into a garden spot.
What would the world be like if America turned its back on the crimes
of Assad? Assad has killed more than half a million of his own people
and forced 12 million people to flee.
These particular sanctions are imposed on the Assad regime
specifically because of his support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Think of
that. We are having the President of Israel come here tomorrow, and
what would we greet him with but nothing but a rollback of sanctions
against two terrorists organizations who are trying to kill as many
Israeli civilians as possible every day of the week.
I think for us to be considering a pro-Israel resolution on this very
floor in a few hours, for us to be welcoming the President of Israel
tomorrow, and to have a resolution on this floor that would say it is
okay, support Hamas, support Hezbollah, watch them try to kill as many
Israelis as possible--they are not always successful, but they are
trying--I can't think of a more effective way to insult the President
of Israel when he stands on that podium and addresses us tomorrow.
Let us continue to do what we can and remember that these sanctions
do not expose a single American serviceman to risk of death or risk of
injury. We should at least be willing to use the economic power of the
United States to do what we can to rein in Syria and to make it clear
to other dictators that chemical weapons, mass murder, and support for
terrorism is not something that we will ignore.
Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would point out, Mr. Speaker, to the gentleman that if he is
looking for a more effective way to insult the President of Israel, he
need look no further than the remarks of some of his own colleagues in
the recent days, which I would deem far more insulting than this policy
debate about how to have an effective sanctions regime.
No one here is arguing for sanctions relief vis-a-vis these
individuals. What we are saying is that the National Emergencies Act is
a very ineffective, inefficient way to administer a sanctions regime.
We do have specific authorities with the Magnitsky Act, with the
National Emergencies Act vis-a-vis counterterrorism. Treasury has these
authorities. State has these authorities. Most importantly, Congress
has the authority to impose sanctions.
If you believe that there are people who should be the subject of
sanctions by the United States Government, we are the board of
directors of the most powerful country on the planet Earth. We can
introduce those bills, vote for them, and we can fulfill our
constitutional authority.
What I am asking the Congress to do is to repeal a 2004 emergency
vis-a-vis Syria when Syria doesn't look anything like it did in 2004.
Mr. Speaker, if you vote to allow this national emergency to
continue, what you are doing is gaslighting unaccountable spending by
the Biden administration because they never have to make the requisite
report regarding the outlays on these matters. The money just moves
around, and we never quite see the efficacy of it.
We are all strong supporters of Israel on this side of the aisle,
certainly, and I would observe that U.S. policy in Syria has not
particularly helped Israel. As a matter of fact, when you had terrorist
groups setting up camps in Syria, directed at Israel, you know what the
Israelis did? They took them out. They blew them up. That sent a
message to Iran, the balance of power was restored, and it did not
involve the United States of America becoming the block captain of
Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East. If we want to do that, it
should be through a war powers
[[Page H3670]]
resolution with Congress affirmatively voting to do it, not just having
rolling national emergencies.
When the law contemplates a requisite obligation for us to vote to
reauthorize these things, we never do it. We don't do our job, then the
money goes out the door, and we don't see a safer Israel, a safer
Middle East, or a safer Syria. All we see is an empowered Assad. If
this is the great tool we had against Assad, we had better be thinking
of some different ones, because it hasn't exactly worked out as the
proponents of this national emergency would seemingly indicate.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
Mr. PHILLIPS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
for the purpose of closing.
I agree with my colleague from Florida on a couple points. I abhor
war like he does, and I wish Congress would reassert itself, but I must
say, we should legislate it, not terminate it.
Abruptly terminating this national emergency will simply undermine
U.S. national security interests and those of our allies. The
resolution would further destabilize Syria and the entire region, be a
gift to the violent and oppressive Assad regime, and create space for
terrorist organizations like ISIS to grow in numbers and capabilities.
I strongly oppose H.J. Res. 79 and urge my colleagues to do the same.
I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join me in opposing it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance
of my time for closing.
The bipartisan opposition to this resolution is significant. Lifting
the national emergency of economic authorities with regard to Syria
would immediately line the pockets of chemical weapons manufacturers,
terrorists, and drug traffickers who have committed horrific crimes
against humanity.
We must work together to oppose the Hezbollah murderers who attack
Israel from Lebanon. These economic sanctions keep terrorists from
using the financial networks of the free world to enrich themselves and
plan attacks against America and our allies.
Democracies must stand together to respond to the dictators' rule of
gun opposing democracies' rule of law. The world is in a competition we
did not choose. Democracies are under attack by dictators such as war
criminal Putin, the Chinese Communist Party, and the regime in Tehran.
Ronald Reagan was absolutely correct, and that is we must have peace
through strength.
Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to this resolution, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Miller of Ohio). All time for debate has
expired.
Pursuant to the order of the House of July 17, 2023, the previous
question is ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the engrossment and third
reading of the joint resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. 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 question will be postponed.
____________________