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 economic 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 regime change in foreign nations by inflicting maximum 

suffering on civilian populations in the hopes they will 

turn against their own government; 


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•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 suffering on vulnerable populations, including women, children, and the elderly; 

Whereas Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once 

opined that ‘‘the price was worth it’’ to impose devastating 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 impersonal and abstract, obscuring the devastating impact of 

this policy, and neglecting that the end-result is vulnerable populations like women and children freezing and 

starving to death: Now, therefore, be it 


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•HRES 1270 IH 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the United States 

2 House of Representatives that no taxpayer dollars, govern3 ment personnel or equipment shall be used to enact sanc4 tions that inflict suffering on civilian populations by inter5 fering with their ability to access food, electricity, power, 

6 clothing, medicine, medical care, transportation, financial 

7 transactions, supplies, or other basic human needs re8 quired for day-to-day survival. 

Æ 


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