Senate Passes Cruz Amendment Prohibiting Sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve Oil to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea

May 18, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), today secured Senate passage of their bipartisan amendment to the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting the sale of Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) crude oil to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Sen. Cruz previously introduced similar legislation as the No Emergency Crude Oil for Foreign Adversaries Act in 2022 and earlier this year.

Watch Sen. Cruz’s comments on the Senate floor before the amendment vote here.

With a strong bipartisan vote, the Senate approved Sen. Cruz’s amendment to the NDAA by a vote of 85-12.

About the amendment, Sen. Cruz said, “We know China has been amassing the largest stockpile of crude in the world. Nevertheless, last year, the United States sold off part of our reserves to China. I have been working with Senator Manchin to prohibit such inexplicably reckless moves in a bipartisan way. Our amendment prevents the federal government from selling oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. We should not be selling our emergency oil reserves to our adversaries.”

Sen. Manchin said, “Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. ramped up production and exports to help meet global demand. It had been devastating to the world. China, on the other hand, stockpiled oil and held back refinery production and while China was stockpiling, one of its state-owned companies purchased over 1.4 million barrels from the United States of America, the people of our great country, from our own stock of reserves. That’s what we’re trying to stop.”

Read the full amendment text here.

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