The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 24 voted in favor of globally expanding the provisions of the Russia-centered Magnitsky Act of 2012.
The committee passed by voice vote the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which would bar human rights violators from around the world entry into the United States and prohibit them from using U.S. financial institutions.
U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland) and John McCain (Republican-Arizona), both members of the committee and co-authors of the bill, hailed the vote.
Cardin said the bipartisan bill gives the United States "the tools to deter future abuses throughout the world."
McCain said the bill "would build on the success" of the Magnitsky Act of 2012, which was intended to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.
The bill now goes to the Senate floor.