U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., scored a win this week as the U.S. House once again passed his bill adding sanctions on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his supporters.
Yoho, the top Republican on the U.S. House Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, got his “Cambodia Democracy Act” through the House on Monday which agreed to it on a voice vote. The bill adds “sanctions on government, military, or security officials who have undermined democracy in Cambodia or committed related human rights abuses.” Yoho had introduced similar legislation last year which passed the House but did not clear the Senate.
The North Florida Republican weighed in on the resolution after it had cleared the House.
“Today, the House passed the Cambodia Democracy Act of 2019, which I introduced in April,” Yoho said. “This important bipartisan legislation will apply asset blocking sanctions on government, military or security officials who have undermined democracy in Cambodia or committed related human rights issues.
“Hun Sen, Cambodia’s strongman prime minister, has clung to power for decades, and has no intentions of relinquishing power. His regime has used violence, threats, and sham prosecutions to attack the peaceful opposition. In 2017, the regime-controlled Parliament and Supreme Court dismantled the Cambodia National Rescue Party and banned its elected officials from office, eliminating the country’s only viable opposition party,” Yoho added. “The Cambodia Democracy Act of 2019 will push back against the Hun Sen regime’s undermining of democracy and related human rights abuses by applying financial sanctions to the figures who carry out this despicable agenda and codifying the administration’s existing visa restrictions for these individuals.
“I look forward to the bipartisan legislation being sent to the Senate and eventually becoming law. It is time to hold the Hun Sen regime accountable for their actions,” Yoho said in conclusion.
Yoho reeled in some of the leading members of the House–including U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY, who chairs the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas–to back his proposal. So far, there is no companion measure over in the U.S. Senate.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
