HARM Act
Bill: H.R.9381 | Sponsor: Rep. Cohen, Steve (D-TN)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries Act or the HARM Act
This bill requires the Department of State to designate the PMC Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organization. Such designation also applies to any affiliated and successor entities undertaking malign activities against the United States and its allies or partners.
(Among other things, such a designation allows the Department of the Treasury to require financial institutions to block transactions involving the organization.)
The President may waive the application of sanctions against these entities if the President determines it to be in the national interest.

To designate the Russian-based PMC Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist 
                 organization, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Holding Accountable Russian 
Mercenaries Act'' or the ``HARM Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The Secretary of State's designation of an entity as a 
        foreign terrorist organization results from a determination 
        that--
                    (A) the entity is foreign and engages in terrorism 
                or terrorist activity; and
                    (B) the terrorist activity threatens the security 
                of the United States or its nationals.
            (2) The activities of the PMC Wagner Group and affiliated 
        entities of Russian national Yevgeniy Prigozhin pose a threat 
        to the national interests and national security of the United 
        States and allies and partners of the United States, including 
        with respect to Russia's war on Ukraine, which President Biden 
        declared, on March 2, 2022, ``pose[s] an unusual and 
        extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign 
        policy of the United States''.
            (3) On June 20, 2017, the Department of the Treasury's 
        Office of Foreign Assets Control designated PMC Wagner and its 
        military leader, Dmitry Utkin, pursuant to Executive Order 
        13660 (titled ``Blocking Property of Additional Certain Persons 
        Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine'') ``for being 
        responsible for or complicit in, or having engaged in, directly 
        or indirectly, actions or policies that threaten the peace, 
        security, stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity of 
        Ukraine''.
            (4) On September 20, 2018, the Department of State added 
        Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his affiliated entities, including the 
        PMC Wagner Group, to the list of persons identified as part of, 
        or operating for or on behalf of, the defense or intelligence 
        sectors of the Government of the Russian Federation under 
        section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through 
        Sanctions Act (22 U.S.C. 9525).
            (5) The PMC Wagner Group, a self-described private actor 
        that undertakes military action and subversive operations at 
        the behest of the Government of the Russian Federation, is a 
        ``terrorist group'' that engages in ``terrorism'' (as defined 
        in section 140(d) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 
        Fiscal Year 1988 and 1989 (22 U.S.C. 2656f(d))), which is 
        ``premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated 
        against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or 
        clandestine agents''.
            (6) The PMC Wagner Group and its affiliated entities have 
        committed, or are credibly accused of committing, terrorist 
        activity (as defined in section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration 
        and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3)(B)), through their 
        involvement in--
                    (A) the massacres, rape, and torture of civilians 
                in Bucha, Ukraine, in March 2022;
                    (B) the massacres in Moura, Mali, in March 2022;
                    (C) the massacres of migrant workers and civilians 
                in mining regions along the Sudan- Central African 
                Republic border in 2022;
                    (D) the murder of Russian journalists in the 
                Central African Republic in June 2018 as well as 
                threats against United States journalists investigating 
                such incident;
                    (E) the kidnapping of children in the Central 
                African Republic in 2022 to work in mines;
                    (F) the rape and sex trafficking of women and 
                children in the Central African Republic between 2018 
                and 2022;
                    (G) the sabotage and lethal suppression of civilian 
                protestors in Sudan in 2019;
                    (H) the use of nerve agents against Libya's 
                Government of National Accord and deployment of illegal 
                landmines and booby-traps in civilian areas of Tripoli 
                between 2019 and 2020;
                    (I) the torture and execution of a Syrian national 
                in June 2017; and
                    (J) efforts to assassinate Ukrainian President 
                Volodymyr Zelensky in March 2022.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Russian-based PMC Wagner Group meets the criteria 
        for designation by the Secretary of State as a foreign 
        terrorist organization under section 219(a) of the Immigration 
        and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)); and
            (2) the Secretary of State should designate the PMC Wagner 
        Group as a foreign terrorist organization under such section 
        219.

SEC. 4. DESIGNATION OF PMC WAGNER GROUP AS A FOREIGN TERRORIST 
              ORGANIZATION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall designate the PMC 
Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organization in accordance with 
section 219(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1189(a)).
    (b) Application.--The designation required under subsection (a) 
shall equally apply to any affiliated and successor entities to the PMC 
Wagner Group undertaking malign activities against the United States 
and its allies and partners, including activities taking place in 
Ukraine, Africa, and the Middle East.
    (c) Waiver.--The President may waive the application of sanctions 
under this section if the President determines and reports to the 
appropriate congressional committees that such a waiver is in the 
national security interest of the United States.
    (d) Defined Term.--In this section, the term ``appropriate 
congressional committees'' means--
            (1) the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate;
            (2) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate;
            (3) the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of 
        the Senate;
            (4) the Committee on Financial Services of the House of 
        Representatives;
            (5) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of 
        Representatives;
            (6) the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
        Representatives; and
            (7) the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
        Representatives.
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