U.S. Congress, the House Foreign Affairs Committee gave its approval to the “Assad Anti-Normalization Act of 2023,” a new piece of legislation that will prohibit the US government from normalizing relations with the Assad regime, strengthen the sanctions in the Caesar Act of 2023, require investigations of the Assad regime’s diversion of humanitarian aid, block the Arab Gas Pipeline initiative, and extend the period of the Caesar Act to the end of 2032. The Committee fast-tracked the legislation, voting on the bill only four days after it was submitted. The committee members voted almost unanimously for the bill, approving it on a voice vote and paving the way for the draft law to be submitted for a vote of the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks. The top Republican and Democrat on the committee, chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), and ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) voted in favor of the bill. The top Republican and Democrat on the Middle East subcommittee, Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Dean Phillips (D-MN), spoke in favor of the bill, as did committee member (and author of the Captagon Bill) French Hill (R-AR). The fact that the bill received broad bipartisan support makes its passage in both the House and the Senate more likely.