[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     RUSSIA'S ONGOING ASSAULT ON OUR DEMOCRACY CANNOT GO UNANSWERED

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, Russia's ongoing assault on our democracy 
and democracies around the globe cannot go unanswered.
  It has been a month since Russian sanctions passed the Senate 97-2, 
yet House Republican leaders continue to stall on bringing that worthy 
bill forward here. Why? Who or what are they protecting? Surely not 
liberty.
  Putin's Russia targets journalists and political opponents for death. 
He shelters hackers that target democratic nations, including ours, and 
Russia hacks businesses to enrich Putin's cronies.
  Russia's illegal invasion of sovereign nations, the latest being 
Ukraine, with over 10,000 dead and over 2 million displaced, reminds us 
of the evil brutality of Russia's kleptocratic rulers. Russia's 
damaging expansionism needs to be stopped.
  Despite earlier denials, reports state that Donald Trump, Jr., Jared 
Kushner, and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort knowingly met with a 
Kremlin-aligned lawyer to secure damaging information about Hillary 
Clinton. This administration is not acting in the national interest, 
and the victim of their encounters is liberty herself.
  Let House Republican leaders stop the delays and bring forward strong 
sanctions legislation on Russia. Let us defend liberty and our rule of 
law as a beacon of hope for people everywhere, even those living in the 
grim reality of Russia.

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