FORTIFY Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8817 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8817

 To permit the transfer of United States defense articles and defense
                   services among the Baltic states.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 2026

 Ms. Johnson of Texas (for herself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr.
 Keating, Mr. Bacon, and Mr. Carbajal) introduced the following bill;
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 To permit the transfer of United States defense articles and defense
                   services among the Baltic states.

    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 ``Facilitating Operational Readiness
Through Inter-Baltics Flexibility Act'' or the ``FORTIFY Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Baltic states play an important role in deterring
        aggression by the Russian Federation due to the strategic
        geographic location of the Baltic states in relation to--
                    (A) the ongoing war between Ukraine and the Russian
                Federation; and
                    (B) the Russian Federation's increasing interest in
                Europe overall; and
            (2) if the Baltic states were given standing permission and
        the capability to use the defense articles and services of each
        other Baltic state, and were provided the training to do so,
        the Russian Federation would likely assume that the entire
        combined fleet in the Baltic states could operate at any time
        anywhere in the Baltic region, which would significantly
        complicate Russian Federation planning and enhance deterrence
        at no cost.

SEC. 3. PERMISSION TO TRANSFERS UNITED STATES DEFENSE ARTICLES AND
              DEFENSE SERVICES AMONG BALTIC STATES.

    (a) Exemptions From Requirement for Consent To Transfer.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding section 3(a)(2) of the
        Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2753(a)(2)) and Section
        505(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
        2314(a)(1)), retransfers of any defense article or defense
        service among the Baltic states shall not require prior
        Presidential consent.
            (2) Prior agreements.--
                    (A) Consent to transfer not required.--Any
                agreement between the United States and a Baltic state
                under section 3 of the Arms Export Control Act (22
                U.S.C. 2753) with respect to any defense article or
                defense service shall not require the Baltic state to
                seek approval from the United States to transfer such
                article or service to any other Baltic state.
                    (B) Modification.--With respect to any agreement
                under section 3(a)(2) of the Arms Export Control Act
                (22 U.S.C. 2753(a)(2)) in effect as of the date of the
                enactment of this Act that requires the consent of the
                President before a Baltic state may transfer a defense
                article or defense service, the United States shall
                modify such agreement so as to remove such requirement
                with respect to such a transfer to any other Baltic
                state.
    (b) Common Coalition Key.--The Secretary of Defense shall establish
among the Baltic countries a common coalition key within the Baltic
states for the purpose of sharing ammunition for any defense article or
service among the Baltic states for training and operational purposes.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Baltic state.--The term ``Baltic state'' means the
        following:
                    (A) Estonia.
                    (B) Lithuania.
                    (C) Latvia.
            (2) Defense article; defense service.--The terms ``defense
        article'' and ``defense service'' have the meanings given such
        terms in section 47 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C.
        2794).
                                 <all>