Providing for Consideration of H.R. Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, Providing for Consideration of H.R. Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, Providing for Consideration of H.R. Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, Providing for Consideration of H.R. 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act; and Providing for Concurrence By the House in the Senate Amendment to H.R. with An Amendment

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, while I rise in support of the rule, and I thank Chairman Burgess for his leadership on giving Members the opportunity to vote on these packages, I also rise to express my profound disappointment that the Biden administration and Democrats in this Chamber have blocked from being ruled in order my amendment to cut off a blank check to Russia's war machine.

President Biden, the U.S. Treasury Department, and congressional Democrats are so concerned about my amendment that they have prevented it from even being considered or debated before this body. Last October, the Biden administration renewed General License 8, which authorizes certain energy-related transactions involving Russian financial institutions. This license has now been renewed eight times since the start of Russia's full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and it continues to undermine measures designed to curtail Russia's energy revenues.

This license, which is the architecture of the Biden foreign policy on Ukraine has become a lifeline for Vladimir Putin. It is the symbol of President Biden's weakness on Russia, the primary avenue through which he is financing Russia's war machine. It is the most prominent example of how the Biden administration's radical climate agenda has collided with its stated policy to counter Russian aggression, and it shows how the Biden administration's climate policy conflicts with our national security.

Coincidentally, the current general license is set to expire on May 1. My very timely amendment would prevent this renewal and would erode the energy profits that are refilling Putin's coffers and funding his war in Ukraine. The sanctions put in place by the Biden administration on Russia's energy sector, a principle source of revenue for the Kremlin, had been wholly inadequate.

Russia's oil and gas revenues have been rising, and countries like India and China have been buying Russian oil well above the price cap put in place. Enforcement of the price cap has been poor, which has enabled Russia to find non-G7 insurers and ships for the transport of a seaborne crude much more quickly than anticipated. The ease with which Russia has been able to evade the price cap calls into question the efficacy and enforceability of the price cap.

Moreover, another renewal of the general license next month would completely ignore the efforts Europe has finally made to diversify its energy supplies and reverse its dangerous prewar reliance on Russian energy. General License 8 originally reflected the need to get countries that were dependent on Russian energy sufficient time to diversify their energy resources, but many of those countries have now effectively diversified their energy suppliers.

Continued issuance of an overly broad general license in this instance threatens to repeat the mistakes made in relation to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, where the Biden administration's refusal to implement strong sanctions against the pipeline not only removed deterrents before the full-scale invasion----

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the additional time. The Biden administration's refusal to implement strong sanctions against the pipeline not only removed deterrents before the full-scale invasion and invited Putin's invasion of Ukraine, but also allowed parts of Europe's dangerous reliance on Russian energy to continue until Putin's tanks had already rolled across Ukraine's borders. Rescinding the license would encourage our allies' efforts to rid themselves of reliance on Russian energy sources.

It makes no sense to fund a needed resistance against Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine while also allowing Russia to fill its war machine coffers through its sale of energy to the rest of the world. Biden can't have his cake and eat it too. It is just ridiculous.

He cannot pursue a radical anti-fossil energy climate crusade at home and hope to keep energy prices low. Similarly, he can't keep the flow of Russian crude on the world markets to bolster global supply while reducing Moscow's revenues through an unenforceable price cap.

The only way to truly punish Moscow and deprive Putin of the financial support he needs to materially--to prosecute the war is by removing the general license on the energy-related transactions facilitated by sanctioned Russian banks. I urge my colleagues to support this rule.

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