U.S. Congress receives first-ever bill to fully repeal Section 907

Republican congresswoman Paulina Luna on Dec. 9 introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking the full repeal of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. The bill was immediately referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Past congressional initiatives focused on allowing the U.S. president to temporarily waive the restriction, but the new proposal marks a significant shift — it calls for Section 907 to be permanently eliminated.

Section 907, adopted on Oct. 24, 1992, under pressure from the Armenian lobby, prohibited U.S. military and financial assistance to Azerbaijan.

In 2001, Congress authorized the president to annually waive its application, and successive U.S. presidents exercised that authority. However, in 2023, President Joe Biden declined to renew the waiver following Azerbaijan’s 23-hour counterterrorism operation in Karabakh.