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[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8817 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 8817
To permit the transfer of United States defense articles and defense
services among the Baltic states.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 14, 2026
Ms. Johnson of Texas (for herself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr.
Keating, Mr. Bacon, and Mr. Carbajal) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To permit the transfer of United States defense articles and defense
services among the Baltic states.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Facilitating Operational Readiness
Through Inter-Baltics Flexibility Act'' or the ``FORTIFY Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Baltic states play an important role in deterring
aggression by the Russian Federation due to the strategic
geographic location of the Baltic states in relation to--
(A) the ongoing war between Ukraine and the Russian
Federation; and
(B) the Russian Federation's increasing interest in
Europe overall; and
(2) if the Baltic states were given standing permission and
the capability to use the defense articles and services of each
other Baltic state, and were provided the training to do so,
the Russian Federation would likely assume that the entire
combined fleet in the Baltic states could operate at any time
anywhere in the Baltic region, which would significantly
complicate Russian Federation planning and enhance deterrence
at no cost.
SEC. 3. PERMISSION TO TRANSFERS UNITED STATES DEFENSE ARTICLES AND
DEFENSE SERVICES AMONG BALTIC STATES.
(a) Exemptions From Requirement for Consent To Transfer.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 3(a)(2) of the
Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2753(a)(2)) and Section
505(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2314(a)(1)), retransfers of any defense article or defense
service among the Baltic states shall not require prior
Presidential consent.
(2) Prior agreements.--
(A) Consent to transfer not required.--Any
agreement between the United States and a Baltic state
under section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act (22
U.S.C. 2753) with respect to any defense article or
defense service shall not require the Baltic state to
seek approval from the United States to transfer such
article or service to any other Baltic state.
(B) Modification.--With respect to any agreement
under section 3(a)(2) of the Arms Export Control Act
(22 U.S.C. 2753(a)(2)) in effect as of the date of the
enactment of this Act that requires the consent of the
President before a Baltic state may transfer a defense
article or defense service, the United States shall
modify such agreement so as to remove such requirement
with respect to such a transfer to any other Baltic
state.
(b) Common Coalition Key.--The Secretary of Defense shall establish
among the Baltic countries a common coalition key within the Baltic
states for the purpose of sharing ammunition for any defense article or
service among the Baltic states for training and operational purposes.
(c) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Baltic state.--The term ``Baltic state'' means the
following:
(A) Estonia.
(B) Lithuania.
(C) Latvia.
(2) Defense article; defense service.--The terms ``defense
article'' and ``defense service'' have the meanings given such
terms in section 47 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C.
2794).
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