U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation Wednesday to graduate Ukraine from the Jackson-Vanik amendment enacted in 1974.

Great day for Ukraine and the United States
 
By Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) #671
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 8, 2006
 
WASHINGTON - The United States House of Representatives Wednesday passed legislation which allows President George Bush to graduate Ukraine from the restrictions of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, passed in 1974, and grants normal trade relations treatment to the products of Ukraine.
 
It was great to have the opportunity to be on Capitol Hill while all this  historic action was taking place.  A delegation of members of the Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition visited with many of the members of the House as they walked from their offices to the House chamber in the Capitol to vote on the Jackson-Vanik legislation.
 
The House vote was 417 in favor, 2 against, 3 abstentions (answered present but did not vote) and 10 members were not present to vote. 
 
The Representatives who voted no were: Virgil H. Goode (R-VA) and Gene Taylor (D-MS).
 
The Representatives who answered present but did not vote were:  Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Dennis Kucinich  (D-OH). A complete record of the voting may be found at: (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll024.xml).
 
Many Ukrainian-Americans, businesses and friends of Ukraine have  worked hard in support of this legislation and have waited years for  this historic moment, this day finally to arrive. 
 
There have been efforts by various Ukrainian organizations now for almost 15 years to get the U.S. Congress to enact the legislation  necessary for Ukraine's graduation.  The efforts started after Ukrainian  independence in August of 1991.
 
Representative Jim Gerlach's bill (R-PA), H.R. 1053, passed the House. The Gerlach bill had 60 co-sponsors. 
 
Representative Gerlach worked closely for several months with the Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition and other groups who have been strongly urging the Senate and House to pass the graduation legislation and send it to the President for enactment. 
 
The President called for Congress to act last April when Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko made his first official visit to Washington. The Administration has been supporting the legislative effort aggressively in recent weeks. 

The U.S. Senate passed a bill, introduced by Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana, in the fall of 2005, which is very similar to the Gerlach bill. 
 
Senator Lugar, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, has been  very active on matters related to Ukraine and was supported in the Senate by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, the committee that has jurisdiction over trade matters, and the Jackson-Vanik law.   
 
In addition to Representative Gerlach, Representatives Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Curt Weldon (R-PA), and Sander Levin (D-MI) have been  especially involved in working to get the House to move on the Jackson-Vanik graduation legislation for several years.
 
Levin and Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, also introduced bills to graduate Ukraine from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. Both put passage of the needed legislation as their priority and not pride of authorship and have been pushing the Gerlach bill actively. 
 
Senator Santorum writes to Majority Leader Frist
 
Reports indicate there is a strong possibility the Gerlach bill, H.R. 1053, now that it has passed the House, may be accepted quickly by the Senate avoiding a conference between the two chambers and expediting its track to the White House for the President's signature.
 
There are some indications in Washington today it might be possible that the bill could be sent to the White House in time for President Bush to sign the bill while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk is still in Washington on Friday. 
 
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) in a letter to Senator Majority Leader Frist on Wednesday stated, "In the event that H.R. 1053, as amended and passed by the House, is similar in substance and scope to S. 632, as amended and passed by the Senate in November, I ask that you work with Chairman Charles Grassley to see that this House passed bill is held at the desk and passed expeditiously by the Senate."
 
The Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition, co-chaired by Ambassador William Miller and Ambassador Steven Pifer, both former U.S. Ambassador's to Ukraine, held a press conference on Capitol Hill at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday to thank the House of Representatives and to celebrate this historic day in the history of Ukraine, which I attended as a member of the Coalition. Congressmen Jim Gerlach, Curt Weldon and Maurice Hinchey all spoke at the Coalition press conference.
 
Congressman Curt Weldon came out of the House Chamber after the successful vote and joined those of us who were standing outside the House side of the Capitol representing the Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition.  The Congressman spoke briefing and everyone joined in
celebrating this very unique moment in Ukrainian history.
 
The Coalition is a broadly based, grass-roots organization that represents over 250 organizations across the country who joined together in the fall of last year. The Coalition believed it was very critical for Ukraine to graduate from the Jackson-Vanik amendment before Ukraine's upcoming parliamentary election on Sunday, March 26. 
 
Michael Bleyzer, a member of the Coalition who is President and CEO of SigmaBleyzer, the largest emerging market private equity investor in Ukraine, when he learned of the great news from Washington late Tuesday afternoon, said, "Today is an important day for relations between Ukraine and the United States. I congratulate members of the House of Representatives on passing the legislation necessary to graduate Ukraine from the Jackson-Vanik amendment. The normalization of trade relations between these two great countries will bring us all closer."

Bleyzer continued, "Many businesses, Ukrainian-Americans, and friends of Ukraine have worked hard in support of this graduation and have waited years for this day finally to arrive. I encourage the Congress to rapidly move the legislation to President Bush so he can sign the bill and thus punctuate the hard work of many with this important, tangible evidence of support for a post-Orange Revolution democratic Ukraine."
 
Some of the individuals in the core leadership of the Jackson-Vanik Graduation Coalition who have been very active, in addition to Ambassador Miller and Ambassador Pifer include: Nadia McConnell, President of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, whose idea it was to create the Coalition; Vera Andrushkiw, Vera Andryczyk, Markian Bilynskyj; Ken Bossong, Zenia Chernyk, Charles Dougherty, Cliff Downen, Natalia Gawdiak, Ihor Gawdiak, Carla Jones, Bryan Kendro, John Kun, Mark Levin, Susanne Lotarski, Alana Malick, Marta Matselioukh, Robert McConnell, Ulyana Panchishin, Matthew Popadiuk and Morgan Williams. 
 
The Coalition extended a special thanks to Robert McConnell, Mark Levin and the two Ambassadors who did much of the 'heavy lifting' with the Bush Administration and the Congress on behalf of the Coalition.
 
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) and its network of affiliated organizations around the country has also been active for many years regarding Ukraine's graduation from the Jackson-Vanik legislation.  UCCA organized another strong drive during the past few months. Michael Sawkiw is president of the UCCA.