I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 476
To require the imposition of sanctions with respect to any foreign person
who knowingly participates in the construction, maintenance, or repair
of a tunnel or bridge that connects the Russian mainland with the
Crimean peninsula.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. M
EEKS(for himself, Mr. CONNOLLY, Mr. WILSONof South Carolina, Mr.
A
MO, Mr. KEATING, and Mr. GOTTHEIMER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition
to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the imposition of sanctions with respect to any
foreign person who knowingly participates in the con-
struction, maintenance, or repair of a tunnel or bridge
that connects the Russian mainland with the Crimean
peninsula.
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 ‘‘No Russian Tunnel 4
to Crimea Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
Congress makes the following findings: 2
(1) In February and March 2014, the Russian 3
Federation invaded the Crimean peninsula and an-4
nexed Crimea, internationally recognized as Ukrain-5
ian territory. 6
(2) Following its annexation of Crimea, the 7
Russian Federation constructed the Kerch Strait 8
Bridge to connect the Russian mainland with the 9
Crimean peninsula. 10
(3) On February 24, 2022, the Government of 11
the Russian Federation, led by Vladimir Putin, 12
launched an unprovoked, full-scale invasion of 13
Ukraine. 14
(4) The Russian Federation has used Crimea as 15
an integral part of its full scale invasion of Ukraine, 16
including to house Russian troops, store ammunition 17
and weapons, and host the Black Sea Fleet. 18
(5) In October 2023, it was publicly reported 19
that Russian and Chinese business officials met and 20
exchanged emails to discuss building a tunnel from 21
the Russian mainland to illegally occupied Crimea. 22
SEC. 3. SANCTIONS. 23
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The President shall impose sanc-24
tions described in subsection (b) with respect to any for-25
eign person who knowingly participates in the construc-26
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tion, maintenance, or repair of a tunnel or bridge that con-1
nects the Russian mainland with the Crimean peninsula. 2
(b) S
ANCTIONSDESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-3
scribed in this subsection are the following: 4
(1) A
SSET BLOCKING.—Notwithstanding the re-5
quirements of section 202 of the International 6
Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701), 7
the President may exercise of all powers granted to 8
the President by that Act to the extent necessary to 9
block and prohibit all transactions in all property 10
and interests in property of the foreign person if 11
such property and interests in property are in the 12
United States, come within the United States, or are 13
or come within the possession or control of a United 14
States person. 15
(2) V
ISAS, ADMISSION, OR PAROLE.— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—An alien who the Sec-17
retary of State or the Secretary of Homeland 18
Security (or a designee of one of such Secre-19
taries) knows, or has reason to believe, is de-20
scribed in subsection (a) is— 21
(i) inadmissible to the United States; 22
(ii) ineligible for a visa or other docu-23
mentation to enter the United States; and 24
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(iii) otherwise ineligible to be admitted 1
or paroled into the United States or to re-2
ceive any other benefit under the Immigra-3
tion and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et 4
seq.). 5
(B) C
URRENT VISAS REVOKED .— 6
(i) I
N GENERAL.—The issuing con-7
sular officer, the Secretary of State, or the 8
Secretary of Homeland Security (or a des-9
ignee of one of such Secretaries) shall, in 10
accordance with section 221(i) of the Im-11
migration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 12
1201(i)), revoke any visa or other entry 13
documentation issued to an alien described 14
in subparagraph (A) regardless of when 15
the visa or other entry documentation is 16
issued. 17
(ii) E
FFECT OF REVOCATION .—A rev-18
ocation under clause (i)— 19
(I) shall take effect immediately; 20
and 21
(II) shall automatically cancel 22
any other valid visa or entry docu-23
mentation that is in the alien’s pos-24
session. 25
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(c) EXCEPTIONS.— 1
(1) E
XCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH INTER -2
NATIONAL OBLIGATIONS .—Sanctions under sub-3
section (b)(2) shall not apply with respect to the ad-4
mission of an alien if admitting or paroling the alien 5
into the United States is necessary to permit the 6
United States to comply with the Agreement regard-7
ing the Headquarters of the United Nations, signed 8
at Lake Success June 26, 1947, and entered into 9
force November 21, 1947, between the United Na-10
tions and the United States, or other applicable 11
international obligations. 12
(2) E
XCEPTION RELATING TO THE PROVISION 13
OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE .—Sanctions under 14
this section may not be imposed with respect to 15
transactions or the facilitation of transactions for— 16
(A) the sale of agricultural commodities, 17
food, medicine, or medical devices; 18
(B) the provision of humanitarian assist-19
ance; 20
(C) financial transactions relating to hu-21
manitarian assistance; or 22
(D) transporting goods or services that are 23
necessary to carry out operations relating to 24
humanitarian assistance. 25
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(3) EXCEPTION FOR INTELLIGENCE , LAW EN-1
FORCEMENT, AND NATIONAL SECURITY ACTIVI -2
TIES.—Sanctions under this section shall not apply 3
to any authorized intelligence, law enforcement, or 4
national security activities of the United States. 5
(d) C
LASSIFIEDINFORMATION.—In any judicial re-6
view of a determination made under this section, if the 7
determination was based on classified information (as de-8
fined in section 1(a) of the Classified Information Proce-9
dures Act) such information may be submitted to the re-10
viewing court ex parte and in camera. This subsection does 11
not confer or imply any right to judicial review. 12
(e) I
MPLEMENTATION; PENALTIES.— 13
(1) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The President may ex-14
ercise all authorities provided to the President under 15
sections 203 and 205 of the International Emer-16
gency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1702 and 17
1704) to carry out this section. 18
(2) P
ENALTIES.—The penalties provided for in 19
subsections (b) and (c) of section 206 of the Inter-20
national Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 21
U.S.C. 1705) shall apply to a person that violates, 22
attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a 23
violation of regulations promulgated to carry out 24
this section to the same extent that such penalties 25
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apply to a person who commits an unlawful act de-1
scribed in section 206(a) of that Act. 2
(f) W
AIVER.—The President may waive the applica-3
tion of sanctions imposed with respect to a foreign person 4
under this section if the President certifies to the appro-5
priate congressional committees not later than 15 days be-6
fore such waiver is to take effect that the waiver is impor-7
tant to the national security interests of the United States. 8
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 9
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-10
mittees’’ means the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 11
the House of Representatives and the Committee on 12
Foreign Relations of the Senate; 13
(2) the term ‘‘foreign person’’ means an indi-14
vidual or entity that is not a United States person; 15
and 16
(3) the term ‘‘United States person’’ means— 17
(A) a United States citizen; 18
(B) a permanent resident alien of the 19
United States; 20
(C) an entity organized under the laws of 21
the United States or of any jurisdiction within 22
the United States, including a foreign branch of 23
such an entity; or 24
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(D) a person in the United States. 1
Æ
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