I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1158
To provide enhanced authority for the President to enter into agreements
with the Government of Ukraine to lend or lease defense articles to
that Government to protect civilian populations in Ukraine from Russian
military invasion, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY10, 2025
Mr. W
ILSONof South Carolina (for himself and Mr. COHEN) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
A BILL
To provide enhanced authority for the President to enter
into agreements with the Government of Ukraine to lend
or lease defense articles to that Government to protect
civilian populations in Ukraine from Russian military
invasion, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom First Lend 4
Lease Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. LOAN AND LEASE OF DEFENSE ARTICLES TO THE 1
GOVERNMENTS OF UKRAINE AND EASTERN 2
FLANK COUNTRIES. 3
(a) A
UTHORITYTOLEND ORLEASEDEFENSEARTI-4
CLES TOCERTAINGOVERNMENTS.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 6
for fiscal years 2026 and 2027, the President may 7
authorize the United States Government to lend or 8
lease defense articles to the Government of Ukraine 9
or to governments of Eastern European countries 10
impacted by the Russian Federation’s invasion of 11
Ukraine to help bolster those countries’ defense ca-12
pabilities and protect their civilian populations from 13
potential invasion or ongoing aggression by the 14
armed forces of the Government of the Russian Fed-15
eration. 16
(2) E
XCLUSIONS.—For the purposes of the au-17
thority described in paragraph (1) as that authority 18
relates to Ukraine, the following provisions of law 19
shall not apply: 20
(A) Section 503(b)(3) of the Foreign As-21
sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2311(b)(3)). 22
(B) Section 61 of the Arms Export Control 23
Act (22 U.S.C. 2796). 24
(3) C
ONDITION.—Any loan or lease of defense 25
articles to the Government of Ukraine under para-26
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graph (1) shall be subject to all applicable laws con-1
cerning the return of and reimbursement and repay-2
ment for defense articles loan or leased to foreign 3
governments. 4
(4) D
ELEGATION OF AUTHORITY .—The Presi-5
dent may delegate the enhanced authority under this 6
subsection only to an official appointed by the Presi-7
dent by and with the advice and consent of the Sen-8
ate. 9
(b) P
ROCEDURES FORDELIVERY OFDEFENSEARTI-10
CLES.—Not later than 60 days after the date of the enact-11
ment of this Act, the President shall establish expedited 12
procedures for the delivery of any defense article loaned 13
or leased to the Government of Ukraine under an agree-14
ment entered into under subsection (a) to ensure timely 15
delivery of the article to that Government. 16
(c) D
EFINITION OFDEFENSEARTICLE.—In this Act, 17
the term ‘‘defense article’’ has the meaning given that 18
term in section 47 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 19
U.S.C. 2794). 20
Æ
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