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The Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukraine Act has been introduced in Congress by a bipartisan group of very supportive Members of the House and Senate.
Although we believe the President already has the required authority, the bill will remove any doubt as to the President’s power to act on Russian state assets as a state countermeasure under international law and join Congress to this effort. The legislation is directed at using confiscated Russian assets. Below you will find the press release announcing the legislation which we hope will receive swift action in both the House and Senate.
The press release issued by principal co-sponsor Senator Jim Risch for his House and Senate co-sponsors is set out below. In the press release is a link that will take you to the text of the legislation. The House and Senate bill numbers will likely be assigned today.
In addition, below the press release you can find an excellent just released forty-page analysis of the legal approach on Russian assets prepared by a multinational team organized by the New Lines Institute.
I note the authors of this professional analysis include members of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Friends of Ukraine Network (FOUN) Dr. Philip D. Zelikow, Ambassador John Herbst, and the Honorable Robert Zoellick.
Committee Ranking Member
U.S. Senator James Risch of Idaho
Contacts:
Suzanne Wrasse (Risch) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Meaghan McCabe (Whitehouse) June 15, 2023
McLaurine Pinover (McCaul)
Ben Kamens (Kaptur)
Risch, Whitehouse, McCaul, Kaptur Introduce Legislation to Repurpose Sovereign Russian Assets for Ukraine
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), in conjunction with U.S. Representatives Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, today introduced the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act , legislation to provide additional assistance to Ukraine using assets confiscated from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and other sovereign assets of the Russian Federation.
“Over a year into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, more than $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets remain frozen globally,” said Risch. “Given Russia’s brutality and continued war crimes against the Ukrainian people, it is only right that Russian government funds in the United States be seized and repurposed to help Ukraine rebuild its country. The REPO Act will help us do just that. I hope our Senate colleagues will join Senator Whitehouse and I in this important effort.”
“It will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild Ukraine’s economy after its people beat back Russia’s murderous and brutal invasion; it only makes sense that Putin’s Russian regime should foot that bill,” said Whitehouse. “The bipartisan REPO Act would ensure the United States—as the lynchpin of the transatlantic alliance—can take a leadership role in making that happen.”
“The decision to launch the unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine was Russia’s and Russia’s alone – so Putin must pay,” said McCaul. “Sadly, we’ve seen time and again the Biden administration play a weak hand and is too eagerly make major concessions in negotiations with our adversaries, including over Iran’s nuclear program, the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and in the lead up to sitting down with the CCP. Therefore, Congress must act to prohibit the administration from trading away Russian state assets before they can be used to compensate Ukraine and to carve out a much-needed path for the U.S. to work with our allies to use these funds for reconstruction. I am proud to support this bill which is not only critical to ensuring justice for Ukraine and being good stewards of U.S. taxpayer dollars, but also sends a powerful deterrent signal to other adversaries that if they want to continue to trade in dollars, euros and yen, they cannot launch unprovoked aggression.”
“Responsibility for the senseless and brutal war being waged against Ukraine lies with Russia alone. It must be Russia that shoulders responsibility for rebuilding Ukraine in the aftermath,” said Kaptur. “The spirit and determination of the Ukrainian people remains unbroken, but the dams, hospitals, schools, courts of law, and neighborhoods decimated by Russian tanks and bombs will require time and resources to emerge from the ashes. The Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act will ensure Russia bears the cost of returning Ukraine to her full glory, while guaranteeing that the Ukrainian people can truly prosper in their hard fought Liberty.”
This legislation:
• Gives the president the authority to confiscate Russian sovereign assets that have been frozen in the United States and transfer them to assist in Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts.
• Prohibits the release of funds to sanctioned Russian entities until Russia withdraws from Ukraine and agrees to provide compensation for harm caused by its unprovoked war.
• Instructs the president to work with allies and partners to establish an international compensation mechanism to transfer confiscated or frozen Russian sovereign assets to assist Ukraine.
• Gives the State Department Office of Sanctions Coordination additional resources to work with partners and allies abroad toward the goal of confiscation of additional Russian sovereign assets in other countries.
• Ensures Putin – not U.S. taxpayers – foots the bill for the damage caused by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Text of the legislation can be found here.
The Senate version of the REPO Act was introduced by U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The House version of the REPO Act was introduced by U.S. Representatives Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Thomas Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.).
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423 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225
(202) 224-4651 p
READ THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT
Executive Summary
This report makes the case for a multilateral asset transfer that is an effective and legally sound framework for reparations, including compensation, for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as for international partners that have assisted Ukraine in defending itself against Russia’s attacks.
Since Russia expanded its aggression against Ukraine in 2022, there is no question that Russia bears responsibility under international law to compensate Ukraine in full for the grave injuries produced by its armed attacks. Both the United Nations and the International Court of Justice have found that Russia is in breach of peremptory norms of international law.[1] On November 14, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly formally recognized that Russia must “bear the legal consequences of all of its internationally wrongful acts, including making reparation for the injury, including any damage, caused by such acts.”[2] The U.N. called for member states, in cooperation with Ukraine, to establish an international mechanism for reparations for damage, loss, or injury arising from the internationally wrongful acts of the Russian Federation.3
This proposal recommends that each state identify and transfer all Russian state assets within its jurisdiction to a central bank escrow account, trust, or analogous arrangement[3] for subsequent disposition in accordance with international agreements. While the Russian state assets are held in escrow, eventual allocation rules and procedures shall be promulgated according to multilateral agreements and in the most transparent way possible, in accordance with the goals of the November 2022 U.N. resolution. Once a global fund to hold and distribute the assets has been established, such as at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, states may then consolidate the assets by transferring them to the global fund.
