Marc Fogel. Submitted

Longtime history teacher and Butler native Marc Fogel, who is nearing three years in a Russian prison, was named in a report accompanying the 2024 fiscal spending bill recently passed by Congress.

The report was released by the House Appropriations Committee alongside the 2024 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, and requires the State Department to provide reasoning for not having designated Fogel as wrongfully detained since his imprisonment.

“The committee has serious and growing concerns regarding the status of American citizen Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021,” the report read. “The committee notes the Department of State has not been able to provide information on why Mr. Fogel has not been classified as wrongfully detained under the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act ...”

“Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this act, the secretary of state shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees detailing information related to the review conducted by the department on whether Marc Fogel is wrongfully detained,” the report continued. “The information required shall be submitted in unclassified form but may contain a classified annex.”

Fogel’s mother, Malphine, who lives in Butler Township, and turned 95 in March, also commented on the report.

“There has been a distinct difference between how Marc has been treated by the U.S. Department of State compared to other Americans similarly detained in Russia,” she stated. “It is important our State Department designate Marc as wrongfully detained or explain why. Marc has been in a Russian prison for two and a half years.”

Malphine Fogel commended Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-14th, who is a member of the House State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, for sponsoring the language.

Michael Driscoll, president of Fogel’s alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, also released a statement about the report, noting it would help explain “why IUP alumnus Marc Fogel has not been declared wrongfully detained by the State Department.”

“Marc and his family deserve this explanation,” Driscoll stated. “Marc proudly served America by teaching children of its diplomats for 35 years. America must stand with him.”

Since his detainment, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16, have been vocal about Fogel’s release.

“This is yet another effort to bring Marc Fogel, a Butler County native, home to his family,” Kelly said about the report. “I was glad to team with my fellow Pennsylvania colleague, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, to ensure this language was included to hold the State Department accountable to provide sufficient information and updates on Marc’s case. My office continues to advocate every day with the State Department for Marc to be deemed wrongfully detained and for his swift return home. I encourage the State Department to provide Members of Congress with a sufficient and complete report on Marc.”

“Marc Fogel should be home with his family, but instead his life is in danger in a maximum-security Russian penal colony because Vladimir Putin and his authoritarian regime are using him as a political pawn,” Casey stated. “I have pushed the Biden Administration to use every possible tool to secure Marc’s safe release and I’m not going to stop putting pressure on the Administration until Marc is back home in the United States.”

On Malphine Fogel’s 95th birthday in March, Casey submitted a statement to the Congressional record, calling for efforts to bring Marc home.

According to his representatives, Casey also has spoken with President Joe Biden directly about Marc Fogel and has raised his case with the White House chief of staff twice in the last month.

Fogel was charged with “large-scale drugs smuggling” and “large-scale illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose” on a return trip in August 2021 after he was found carrying about half an ounce of medical marijuana at a Russian airport prescribed for chronic pain caused by a spinal injury. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Fogel had been teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, which has since closed, for almost 10 years before his arrest.

Fogel is one of several Americans detained by the Kremlin, along with former Marine Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, reporter and journalist for The Wall Street Journal who were both acknowledged by Biden in his 2024 State of the Union address.

The one-year anniversary of Gershkovich’s imprisonment took place Friday, March 29.