WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and 21 of their Republican colleagues in introducing the Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act, legislation to address the outstanding issues related to the administration’s rushed and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This legislation establishes a State Department task force to focus on the evacuation of American citizens, legal permanent residents, and Afghan Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) who are still stuck in Afghanistan. It also imposes oversight mechanisms on the processing of SIVs and refugees, requires strategies for counterterrorism and for the disposition of Taliban-captured U.S. equipment, sanctions the Taliban and others in Afghanistan for terrorism, drug-trafficking and human rights abuses, authorizes sanctions on those providing support to the Taliban, including foreign governments supporting the Taliban, states that the United States should not recognize any member of the Taliban as the ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States or as the ambassador of Afghanistan to the United Nations, calls for a comprehensive review of foreign assistance to entities that support the Taliban, and places restrictions on non-humanitarian foreign assistance to Afghanistan.
Joining Sens. Johnson and Risch as original cosponsors are Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Todd Young (R-Ind.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
The text of the legislation can be found here.
