Title: A bill to amend the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017 to ensure appropriate congressional review and the continued applicability of sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This bill amends the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017 to require congressional review of any proposed action by the President to waive sanctions against Russia or Russian officials under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3275 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3275

To amend the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017 to ensure appropriate 
congressional review and the continued applicability of sanctions under 
      the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 25, 2018

Mr. Cardin (for himself and Mr. McCain) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017 to ensure appropriate 
congressional review and the continued applicability of sanctions under 
      the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) On December 14, 2012, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law 
        Accountability Act (title IV of Public Law 112-208; 22 U.S.C. 
        5811 note) (in this section referred to as the ``Magnitsky 
        Act''), which imposes visa bans and asset freezes on those 
        involved in the Sergei Magnitsky case and other officials 
        responsible for gross human rights abuses in the Russian 
        Federation, was signed into law.
            (2) On December 28, 2012, in response to the Magnitsky Act, 
        Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that 
        banned citizens of the United States from adopting Russian 
        children, impacting the lives of hundreds of Russian orphans 
        and the families in the United States that they were slated to 
        join. The bill, which also banned United States-funded civic 
        groups from operating in the Russian Federation, sparked 
        massive protests in Moscow.
            (3) On April 13, 2013, one day after the United States 
        issued its first sanctions designations under the Magnitsky Act 
        on 18 officials of the Government of the Russian Federation, 
        the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation issued a 
        retaliatory list of 18 officials of the Government of the 
        United States who are banned from entering the Russian 
        Federation.
            (4) On June 13, 2013, in testimony before the Committee on 
        Foreign Relations of the Senate, now-slain Russian opposition 
        leader Boris Nemtsov called the Magnitsky Act ``the most pro-
        Russian law in the history of any foreign parliament''.
            (5) On July 11, 2013, following an unprecedented posthumous 
        trial that many observers noted fell short of international 
        fair trial standards, a court in the Russian Federation found 
        Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion.
            (6) On June 9, 2016, senior members of the Presidential 
        campaign of Donald Trump met with a Russian lawyer with ties to 
        the Kremlin to discuss the adoption policy of the Russian 
        Federation after the Magnitsky Act.
            (7) On February 9, 2018, Vladimir Putin said ``I think that 
        [the United States Congress] will soon get tired of [the 
        Magnitsky Act]''.
            (8) On July 16, 2018, during a joint press conference with 
        President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, Vladimir Putin 
        indicated the interest of the Government of the Russian 
        Federation in questioning officials of the Government of the 
        United States and others involved in the passage and 
        implementation of the Magnitsky Act.
            (9) As of July 2018, 49 individuals in the Russian 
        Federation, including those with close ties to Vladimir Putin, 
        have been sanctioned pursuant to the Magnitsky Act.
            (10) As of July 2018, Canada and the United Kingdom, the 
        Netherlands, and other countries in Europe continue to adopt or 
        further efforts to develop their own versions of the Magnitsky 
        Act.
            (11) On August 2, 2017, President Donald Trump signed into 
        law the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act 
        (Public Law 115-44), which, among other things, imposes a slate 
        of mandatory sanctions on the Russian Federation and requires 
        congressional review and provides for possible congressional 
        disapproval of actions by the executive branch to lift United 
        States sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW AND CONTINUED APPLICABILITY OF SANCTIONS 
              UNDER THE SERGEI MAGNITSKY RULE OF LAW ACCOUNTABILITY ACT 
              OF 2012.

    Section 216(a)(2)(B)(i) of the Russia Sanctions Review Act of 2017 
(22 U.S.C. 9511(a)(2)(B)(i)) is amended--
            (1) in subclause (II), by striking ``; or'' and inserting a 
        semicolon;
            (2) in subclause (III), by striking ``; and'' and inserting 
        ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                                    ``(IV) the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of 
                                Law Accountability Act of 2012 (title 
                                IV of Public Law 112-208; 22 U.S.C. 
                                5811 note); and''.
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