Sec. 302. Findings

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Congress makes the following findings: The international norm against the use of chemical weapons has severely eroded since 2012. At least 4 actors between 2012 and the date of the enactment of this Act have used chemical weapons: Syria, North Korea, the Russian Federation, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria. On March 4, 2018, the Government of the Russian Federation knowingly used novichok, a lethal chemical agent, in an attempt to kill former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury, United Kingdom.

In September 2018, the Government of the United Kingdom charged 2 Russian suspects with the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, further highlighting the culpability of the Government of the Russian Federation in the attack. On June 27, 2018, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (commonly known as the OPCW ), during its Fourth Special Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, adopted a decision to put in place arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic by identifying and reporting on all information potentially relevant to the origin of those chemical weapons in those instances in which the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria determines or has determined that use or likely use occurred, and cases for which the OPCW–UN Joint Investigative Mechanism has not issued a report; and decide[d] also that the Secretariat shall provide regular reports on its investigations to the Council and to the United Nations Secretary-General for their consideration .

In addition, during the Fourth Special Session, the State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention voted to provide new powers to the Director-General of the OPCW to attribute chemical weapons attacks. The decision affirms that, whenever a chemical weapons use occurs on the territory of a State Party, those who were the perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved should be identified, and underscores the added value of the Secretariat conducting an independent investigation of an alleged use of chemical weapons with a view to facilitating universal attribution of all chemical weapons attacks .

Finally, the decision of the State Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention allows the Director-General, if requested by a State Party investigating a possible chemical weapons use on its territory, [to] provide technical expertise to identify those who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons . The Government of the Russian Federation attempted to impede the adoption of the identification mechanism in the Fourth Special Session, and has repeatedly worked to degrade the OPCW’s ability to identify chemical weapons users.

The Government of the Russian Federation has shown itself to be unwilling or incapable of compelling the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, an ally of the Russian Federation, to stop using chemical weapons against the civilian population in Syria. The United States remains steadfast in its commitment to its key ally the United Kingdom, its commitment to the mutual defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and its commitment to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Thirty-four countries, including the United States, have joined the International Partnership against Impunity for the use of Chemical Weapons, which represents a political commitment by participating countries to hold to account persons responsible for the use of chemical weapons.

The Defense Ministry of the Government of the Netherlands exposed 4 Russians as agents of the GRU intelligence service who had attempted to hack OPCW networks during the OPCW’s investigation of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, United Kingdom.