Lawler, Pallone, Bilirakis, and Amo Lead Bipartisan Effort – Supported by ANCA – Demanding Enforcement of Section 907
Sixty U.S. Representatives have called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to enforce Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act – demanding an immediate end to U.S. military assistance to Azerbaijan, citing Baku’s ethnic cleansing of Artsakh’s 120,000 indigenous Armenian Christian population, continued occupation of sovereign Armenian territory, and illegal detention and abuse of Armenian prisoners, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Representatives Mike Lawler (R-NY), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), and Gabe Amo (D-RI) led the bi-partisan Congressional letter sent to Secretary of State Rubio earlier today. POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil broke news of the lawmakers’ demands in today’s National Security Daily news bulletin.
“The ANCA welcomes this bipartisan Congressional call on Secretary Rubio to enforce Section 907 – ending U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “In the wake of Azerbaijan’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian Christians of Artsakh – amid its ongoing occupation of sovereign Armenian territory and illegal detention of Armenian hostages – we cannot ask U.S. taxpayers to subsidize this oil-rich, violent, and corrupt foreign dictatorship. We thank Representatives Lawler, Pallone, Bilirakis, and Amo – and the 60 Representatives who joined with them – for their moral clarity and strong pro-peace leadership.”
Joining Representatives Lawler, Pallone, Bilirakis, and Amo in co-signing the letter are Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Don Beyer (D-VA), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Greg Casar (D-TX), Sean Casten (D-IL), Joaquín Castro (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Vince Fong (R-CA), Laura Friedman (D-CA), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jonathan Jackson (D-IL), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Young Kim (R-CA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), John Larson (D-CT), Susie Lee (D-NV), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), “Seth Magaziner, (D-RI)”, Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), James McGovern (D-MA), Rob Menendez (D-NJ), Grace Meng (D-NY), Dave Min (D-CA), Barry Moore (R-AL), Joseph Morelle (D-NY), Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Luz Rivas (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Dina Titus (D-NV), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Lori Trahan (D-MA), David Valadao (R-CA, ), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), and George Whitesides (D-CA),
Citing Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh’s (Artsakh) 120,000 indigenous Armenian population, the lawmakers stressed, “having faced no material consequences or accountability for its actions, Azerbaijan continues to undermine efforts to ensure a just, durable, and dignified peace in the region through its ongoing aggression against Armenia.”
The signatories urged Secretary Rubio not to invoke the waiver authority that has allowed successive administrations to circumvent Section 907 and instead enforce the law to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its crimes. Every U.S. President has invoked the waiver since 2001 until President Biden, who enforced the provision in 2024.
The lawmakers argued, “amid Azerbaijan’s ongoing aggression against Armenia, its continued abuse of Armenian POWs, its destruction of Armenian Christian cultural heritage, and its denial of the right of Nagorno Karabakh’s Armenians to safely return to their homes, the continued failure to hold Azerbaijan accountable would not only risk normalizing Azerbaijan’s actions – but embolden U.S. rivals seeking to take advantage of Washington’s inaction.”
The letter builds on Congressional momentum from the Armenian Protection Act (S.3000), led in the Senate by then Senator, now Secretary of State, Rubio and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), which passed unanimously in 2023 and underscored growing bipartisan concern over U.S. military ties to the Aliyev regime.
The ANCA launched a nationwide grassroots campaign urging support for the Lawler-Pallone-Bilirakis-Amo letter, with over 50,000 individual letters sent to Congress through the ANCA Rapid Responder system. Over the past weeks, youth advocates participating in the ANCA Rising Leaders program joined the ANCA DC and Regional teams and visited over 400 Congressional offices supporting the effort.
The full text of the Lawler-Pallone-Bilirakis-Amo congressional letter is provided below.