Graded F: Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-13)
She didn't ask to waive the law. She wants to erase every bit of U.S. scrutiny of Azerbaijan.
Asbed names Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna, and Hamparian confirms she authored the cycle’s legislation to eliminate Section 907, the restriction on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan. He draws a distinction between members who think the law should be waived or suspended in certain circumstances, a position he disagrees with but understands as a middle-ground view, and Luna’s far more sweeping approach.
Luna, he says, went to the extreme. Her bill does not argue that Azerbaijan is a good actor or that the law should be paused for specific interests. It seeks to strike down the entire legacy of U.S. scrutiny of Azerbaijan so that aid and arms flow freely to Baku. Hamparian describes Azerbaijan as a very oil-rich country that neither needs nor deserves U.S. assistance, making the push especially hard to justify.
Because Luna is out front cheerleading for Azerbaijan and working to ensure American tax dollars reach Baku, ANCA gave her an F. The clip matters because Luna’s bill is the vehicle other legislators later signed onto, as the report card makes clear in subsequent segments. Her authorship places her at the center of this cycle’s biggest fight over U.S. accountability toward Azerbaijan, and it frames how ANCA grades the difference between seeking flexibility and seeking total removal of oversight.
Transcript
Asbed Bedrossian: So, Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna.
Aram Suren Hamparian: Yes, she is the author of legislation this past cycle that would eliminate the Section 907 restriction on aid to Azerbaijan. Again, there are members of Congress who think that that law should be waived or suspended, and they have their reasons. We disagree with them, but that's kind of like, I guess, in their view, a middle ground approach to this issue. She went all the way to the extreme and said not that Azerbaijan's a good actor or that this law should be suspended because of some of their interests, but saying that the entire legacy of U.S. scrutiny of Azerbaijan needs to be struck down and that the aid arms should flow freely to Baku, a very oil rich country that neither needs nor deserves U.S. aid. And so she's way out front on cheerleading Azerbaijan, making sure that they get our tax dollars. And for that reason, we gave her an F.