The bill provides for new anti-Russian sanctions
Washington. September 24. INTERFAX-The defense budget for 2020 in the amount of $768 billion was approved by the House of Representatives of the US Congress by 316 votes to 113.
Of the $768 billion, $740 billion is provided directly for the needs of the Pentagon, $28 billion - for the Ministry of Energy.
The lawmakers included amendments to the bill concerning new sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Russia's sovereign debt, as well as against a number of Russian representatives.
The list of Russians who are accused of "human rights violations" includes Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, chairman of the Russian election commission Ella Pamfilova, press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel Margarita Simonyan and a number of others.
The document instructs the leadership of the country's military and intelligence structures to clearly explain how they plan to protect themselves from terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan.
It is also proposed to stop providing support to Saudi Arabia's agencies that carry out bombing of Yemen, which lead to civilian casualties.
The media, commenting on these proposals, note that similar measures were proposed by Congress earlier, but they were vetoed by President Donald Trump.
The Senate is also preparing its own version of the defense budget. The bills of both chambers must be combined and then submitted to the president for signature.
