Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., has secured a vote today on President Joe Biden’s refusal to release to the Afghan central bank $9.4 billion of its own foreign reserves, The Intercept has learned. It will mark the first-ever vote on the White House’s lethal policy of asset denial that’s causing the displacement, starvation, and death of millions of Afghans.

Jayapal introduced her measure as an amendment to a gigantic anti-China bill that would subsidize the U.S. semiconductor and other industries with hundreds of billions of dollars and ratchet up military activities in the Indo-Pacific region. The House of Representatives is planning to hold a floor vote on the legislation – called the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength, or COMPETES, Act – this week.

Jayapal’s provision, drafted with Rep. Jesús Garcia, D-Ill., would require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide Congress with an assessment of the humanitarian suffering caused by U.S. sanctions on Afghanistan and its confiscation of the country’s foreign-held money. It would also mandate a review of illicit financial activities with China amid a breakdown of Afghanistan’s banking system.

At least eight other amendments to the broader bill target Afghanistan, reflecting a range of approaches to sanctions and relief. One provision sanctions individuals for trading the country’s rare earth minerals; another provides visas for Afghan Fulbright scholars. But none call out the Biden administration for its asset seizure.

As the Taliban neared Kabul last summer, Secretary of State Tony Blinken blocked the outflow of Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves, and he hasn’t lifted a finger since then. The U.S. had spent nearly 20 years building an Afghan central banking system that was independent of the government and, despite fear mongering by a number of Democrats and Republicans, still operates without interference from the Taliban.

“These are not American taxpayer funds,” said Shah Mehrabi, a member of the central bank’s board and a professor of economics at Montgomery College, arguing for the release of Afghanistan’s reserves. “People are under the illusion that these are United States funds. These funds belong to Afghanistan. The central bank will have to be in a position to have access to its own reserves.”

Amid the loss of capital, Afghanistan has faced bank closures, business and trade ruin, skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, and starvation. Afghans have had to burn their belongings for heat or sell them to afford food. The devastation has led United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to call for the release of Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves to increase liquidity in the country’s economy.

Democrats’ reaction to the crisis has been jumbled, allowing the White House’s policy of squeezing the Afghan economy to fester. The party has split over whether to impose conditions on the Taliban before ending the freeze. Today’s vote will test where lawmakers stand on a modest proposal to report on the humanitarian situation.

The COMPETES Act is the House’s answer to the Senate’s United States Innovation and Competition Act, or USICA, that passed in a 68-32 vote last June. Once the bill passes, the House and Senate will reconcile the two for final consideration.

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