119-s1009

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1009 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 1009

 To establish the Baltic Security Initiative for the purpose of 
 strengthening the defensive capabilities of the Baltic countries, and 
 for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 March 12, 2025

 Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Booker, Mr. Padilla, Mr. 
King, Ms. Slotkin, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Cassidy, 
Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Gallego) introduced the following bill; which was 
 read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To establish the Baltic Security Initiative for the purpose of 
 strengthening the defensive capabilities of the Baltic countries, and 
 for other purposes.

 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 ``Baltic Security Initiative Act''.

SEC. 2. BALTIC SECURITY INITIATIVE.

    (a) Establishment.--Pursuant to the authority provided in chapter 
16 of title 10, United States Code, the Secretary of Defense shall 
establish and carry out an initiative, to be known as the ``Baltic 
Security Initiative'' (in this section referred to as the 
``Initiative''), for the purpose of deepening security cooperation with 
the military forces of the Baltic countries.

    (b) Relationship to Existing Authorities.--The Initiative required 
by subsection

    (a) shall be carried out pursuant to the authorities 
provided in title 10, United States Code.
            (c) Objectives.--The objectives of the Initiative shall be--

    (1) to achieve United States national security objectives 
 by--
        (A) deterring aggression by the Russian Federation; 
 and
        (B) implementing the North Atlantic Treaty 
 Organization's new Strategic Concept, which seeks to 
 strengthen the alliance's deterrence and defense 
 posture by denying potential adversaries any possible 
 opportunities for aggression;

    (2) to enhance regional planning and cooperation among the 
 military forces of the Baltic countries, particularly with 
 respect to long-term regional capability projects, including--
        (A) long-range precision fire systems and 
 capabilities;
        (B) integrated air and missile defense;
            (C) maritime domain awareness;
            (D) land forces development, including stockpiling 
 large caliber ammunition;
        (E) command, control, communications, computers, 
 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance;
        (F) special operations forces development;
        (G) coordination with and security enhancements for 
 Poland, which is a neighboring North Atlantic Treaty 
 Organization ally; and
        (H) other military capabilities, as determined by 
 the Secretary of Defense; and

    (3) with respect to the military forces of the Baltic 
 countries, to improve cyber defenses and resilience to hybrid 
 threats.
            (d) Strategy.--

    (1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of 
 the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall 
 submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and 
 the House of Representatives a report setting forth a strategy 
 for the Department of Defense to achieve the objectives 
 described in subsection

    (b) .

    (2) Considerations.--The strategy required by this 
 subsection shall include a consideration of--
        (A) security assistance programs for the Baltic 
 countries authorized as of the date on which the 
 strategy is submitted;
        (B) the ongoing security threats to the North 
 Atlantic Treaty Organization's eastern flank posed by 
 Russian aggression, including as a result of the 
 Russian Federation's 2022 invasion of Ukraine with 
 support from Belarus; and
            (C) the ongoing security threats to the Baltic 
 countries posed by the presence, coercive economic 
 policies, and other malign activities of the People's 
 Republic of China.

    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--

    (1) In general.--There is authorized to be appropriated to 
 the Secretary of Defense $350,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
 years 2026, 2027, and 2028 to carry out the Initiative.

    (2) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
 the Secretary of Defense should seek to require matching funds 
 from each of the Baltic countries that participate in the 
 Initiative in amounts commensurate with amounts provided by the 
 Department of Defense for the Initiative.

    (f) Baltic Countries Defined.--In this section, the term ``Baltic 
countries'' means--

    (1) Estonia;

    (2) Latvia; and

    (3) Lithuania.
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