Today, March 16th, 2022, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02) joined Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK-05) to introduce the Make Russia Pay Act, legislation that would establish a fund within the U.S. Treasury to disburse seized Russian assets and have them fund Ukrainian relief.
“Russia must be held fully accountable for the atrocities they have committed in their illegal invasion of Ukraine. We must continue to put pressure on Putin and his cronies to end this war,” said Miller-Meeks. “I am proud to have voted to send much-needed military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and I understand that more must be done to support them. I am proud to stand with the people of Ukraine.”
Background:
This bill would establish a “Ukrainian Humanitarian Aid Fund” at the U.S. Department of the Treasury into which seized Russian assets (physically in the US or denominated in US dollars) would be liquidated and transferred. Russia’s own central bank has about $100 billion of reserves held in U.S. dollars according to the most recent available data released in January 2022.
Treasury would then be authorized to disburse funds directly to Ukraine to provide assistance to its citizens, rebuild destroyed infrastructure, and purchase needed defense articles.
President Biden announced U.S. sanctions last month intended to cripple Russia’s financial system and stymie its economic growth by targeting Russia’s biggest banks, which the Treasury Department said holds nearly 80% of all the country’s banking assets.
Miller-Meeks has cosponsored several pieces of legislation intended to sanction Russia, its government, and its leadership, including the GUARD Act, the Putin Accountability Act, the American Energy Independence from Russia Act, the Prohibition on Imports of Russian Oil Act, condemning Russia’s actions, the Ban Russian Energy Imports Act, and sanctioning the Russian Parliament.
Original source can be found here
