Dear Speaker Johnson and Leader Jeffries:
Last weekend’s Iranian attack on Israel offered a disturbing preview of a world without American leadership. The Islamic Republic deployed some of the very same weapons against Israel that it is supplying to Russia in its assault against Ukraine.
Our authoritarian adversaries are working together against our democratic friends around the world while Washington is locked in a battle of partisan egos. The sinister collaboration between Russia, Iran, and China must be a call to action. Therefore, we urge you to lead together and pass the National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act.
We also call upon you to include the REPO for Ukrainians Act in the final version of the National Security Supplemental. This legislation urges the president to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. The world looks to America to lead and doing so would unlock hundreds of billions of dollars held in the US and allied countries to support Ukrainian victory and finance the country’s reconstruction at no cost to the American taxpayer.
Though we believe that President Biden has the authority to adopt this course of action as laid out in an independent report authored by legal scholar Laurence Tribe, the White House has not yet taken this critical step. Your leadership through legislative action will increase the likelihood that the administration does what is necessary to confiscate Putin’s billions. If America leads, Europe will follow.
The United States is strongest when we stand with our allies. But if a global leadership vacuum is allowed to persist, we risk even more far-reaching international crises that will inevitably cost more American taxpayer dollars and may endanger the lives of our men and women in uniform. Providing our partners with the aid they need today safeguards our national security interests tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Garry Kasparov
Chairman, Renew Democracy Initiative
Uriel Epshtein
CEO, Renew Democracy Initiative
