McCaul Releases “21st Century Peace through Strength Act”

Washington, D.C. - Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul introduced legislation that will serve as the fourth pillar of the House Republican national security supplemental package, the "21st Century Peace through Strength Act."

"In order to truly confront the generational threat posed by the unholy alliance of Russia, China, and Iran, we need to make substantive policy changes in addition to providing critical security assistance to our partners and investing in our defense industrial base. I'm proud the '21st Century Peace through Strength Act' includes the most comprehensive sanctions against Iran Congress has passed in years; the bipartisan, bicameral REPO Act; and protects Americans from the malign influence of the CCP-controlled TikTok. The time to pass this is now - we cannot wait anymore."

BACKGROUND

This legislation includes provisions pulled from multiple pieces of legislation sponsored and supported by House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, including:

• Empowers the executive branch to transfer frozen Russian sovereign assets to Ukraine to help Ukraine stay in the fight and rebuild. This will ensure that Putin pays for his brutal war of aggression (Chair McCaul)
• Mandatory sanctions against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al-Asqa Martyr's Brigade, the Lion's Den, and other Palestinian terrorist groups and their supporters (Rep. Mast)
• Sanctions on individuals trafficking illicit captagon benefiting war criminal Bashar al-Assad (Rep. Hill)
• Sanctions on ports and refineries that receive and process Iranian oil (Rep. Lawler)
• Further restricts the export or re-export of U.S.-origin goods and technology to Iran, including those used to manufacture missiles and drones attacking our forces across the Middle East and by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine (Rep. Moran)
• Mandatory sanctions on anyone involved in activity covered under the UN missile embargo on Iran that lapsed in October 2023, on anyone involved in the supply, sale, or transfer of, or support for, Iran's missiles and drones (Chair McCaul)

It also includes provisions that:

• Fully enforce human rights sanctions on the Iranian regime (Rep. Banks)
• Reauthorize and strengthen the 2018 Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act (Rep. Gallagher)
• Prevent app store availability or web hosting services in the U.S. for ByteDance-controlled applications, including TikTok, unless the application severs ties to entities like ByteDance that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary (Rep. Gallagher)
• Declare international fentanyl trafficking a national emergency and direct the Treasury Department to target, sanction, and block the financial assets of transnational criminal organizations and key members of drug cartels involved in international fentanyl trafficking (Chair McCaul)
• Requires the president to periodically determine whether a Chinese financial institution has engaged in the purchase of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran (Rep. Lawler)
• Requires the president to brief Congress on the finances of Iranian leadership and require financial institutions to close accounts connected to these individuals. (Rep. Hill)
• Disrupts the ability of Hamas to fund terrorism, and makes it harder for state sponsors of terrorism to abuse International Monetary Fund resources to finance terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah (Rep. Steil)

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