Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that no taxpayer dollars will be used to enact sanctions that inflict suffering on civilian populations.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1270 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that no taxpayer dollars will be used to enact sanctions that inflict suffering on civilian populations. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 18, 2020 Ms. GABBARD submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that no taxpayer dollars will be used to enact sanctions that inflict suffering on civilian populations. Whereas sanctions are an instrument of modern-day eco- nomic warfare, designed to inflict punishment on foreign populations by impeding the ability of those populations to access the basic necessities required for a decent life, such as food, medicine, hygiene and sanitary supplies, and fuel; Whereas the aim of sanctions is often to forcibly engineer re- gime change in foreign nations by inflicting maximum suffering on civilian populations in the hopes they will turn against their own government; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1270.IH HR1270 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 1270 IH Whereas the true victims of sanctions are innocent civilians subjected to collective punishment for the sins, real or perceived, of their governments; Whereas sanctions have accelerated migrant crises around the world, undermining stability everywhere from Europe, to the Middle East, to South America, by exacerbating the harsh conditions which give civilians no choice but to flee their homelands; Whereas the policy of punishing innocent civilians with cruel and counter-productive sanctions in the midst of a global pandemic has impeded the ability of civilian populations to obtain the medical, nutritional, hygienic resources needed to curtail the spread of COVID-19, which, given the transmissibility of the virus across national borders, ultimately harms the United States; Whereas the human toll in the countries targeted by the most draconian sanctions policies have caused immense suf- fering on vulnerable populations, including women, chil- dren, and the elderly; Whereas Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once opined that ‘‘the price was worth it’’ to impose dev- astating sanctions on Iraq, even as she acknowledged that the ‘‘price’’ was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, and a further worsening of diplomatic relations that culminated in the disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation just a few years later; and Whereas public discussion of ‘‘sanctions’’ is too often imper- sonal and abstract, obscuring the devastating impact of this policy, and neglecting that the end-result is vulner- able populations like women and children freezing and starving to death: Now, therefore, be it VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1270.IH HR1270 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 1270 IH Resolved, That it is the sense of the United States 1 House of Representatives that no taxpayer dollars, govern- 2 ment personnel or equipment shall be used to enact sanc- 3 tions that inflict suffering on civilian populations by inter- 4 fering with their ability to access food, electricity, power, 5 clothing, medicine, medical care, transportation, financial 6 transactions, supplies, or other basic human needs re- 7 quired for day-to-day survival. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:50 Dec 21, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR1270.IH HR1270 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS