Syria Sanctions Bill Might Get Pushed to Next Congress, Lawmaker Says
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said Dec. 2 that his bill to expand sanctions on Syria's Bashar Assad regime seems to have stalled in Congress but that he hopes to get it enacted into law next year if not this month.
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Wilson’s Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act cleared the House by a 389-32 vote in February (see 2402160014) but has failed to advance in the Senate. “So much of this was bipartisan, but for some reason, the Senate bogged it down,” Wilson said at a Hudson Institute event.
However, Wilson, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’s hopeful his legislation, along with pro-democracy measures dealing with the Republic of Georgia and Venezuela, will get a boost when Republicans take control of the upper chamber in January. “It’s a new world” following the GOP’s capture of the Senate in the Nov. 5 elections, he said.
The Syria bill would sanction members of Syria’s People’s Assembly and senior officials of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party and would clarify the applicability of sanctions to Syrian regime airlines and energy-related transactions. It also would expand Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act sanctions to those involved in diverting humanitarian aid meant for the Syrian people.