On March 21, 2014, H.R. 4278, the “Ukraine Support Act” was introduced in the House of Representatives, coinciding with the Senate’s consideration of S. 2124, the “Support for the Sovereignty, Integrity, Democracy, and Economic Stability of Ukraine Act of 2014” Due to significant congressional support for Ukraine and a desire to penalize Russia for its actions, it appears that U.S. Congress will coalesce behind one of these bills or reach a compromise to reconcile the differences between H.R. 4278 and S. 2124.
H.R. 4278 was amended and approved at a markup session in the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee on March 25, 2014 and is now pending a vote by the full House of Representatives. S. 2124 was introduced in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 12, 2014 and approved by the committee on the same day. The full Senate is expected to vote on S. 2124 this week.
Both bills have provisions that are similar to and/or codify Executive Orders 13660, 13661, and 13662 that President Obama has issued in response to the crisis in Ukraine, pursuant to which approximately 30 parties have been designated as “Specially Designated Nationals” (“SDNs”) and barred entry in the United States. The codification would require the President to certify to Congress that Russia is not violating Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity before any of these Executive Orders are rescinded.
In addition, if enacted, both bills would expand the scope of current U.S. sanctions by targeting corruption in Russia. Specifically, the bills would authorize the President to designate as SDNs and bar entry into the United States officials of the Russian Government (including close associates and family members thereof) that, based on Section 9 of S. 2124, are responsible for or complicit in “significant corruption” in Russia, “including the expropriation of private or public assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, bribery, or the facilitation or transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign jurisdictions.”