Congress is once again on the edge of considering a bone-crushing sanctions package against Russia, but procedural disagreements threaten to derail the process.
Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have been working on a sanctions package that would hit Russia and its energy trade partners where it hurts in a bid to cripple the Kremlin’s war machine.
Movement on their legislation, which has over 80 co-sponsors in the upper chamber, has lurched and stalled over the last several months as President Donald Trump and his administration work to hammer out a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine to see an end to the war.
Now, the president seems ready to get the package through Congress.
Graham said that, over a round of golf last weekend, Trump told Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., ‘Move the bill.’
‘I think it’s very important we not screw this up,’ Graham said. ‘If you want [Russian President Vladimir] Putin at the table, there will be no successful 28-point plan or 12-point plan unless Putin believes that we’re going to continue to support Ukraine militarily and that we’re going to come after people who buy cheap Russian oil.
‘It’s important that the Congress pass this bill to give leverage to the president as he tries to negotiate with Putin.’
While the changes to the bill still remain under wraps, a White House official told Fox News Digital that both Congress and the White House are working together to ensure the legislation advances, ‘The President’s foreign policy objectives and authorities.’
‘The Constitution vests the president with the authority to conduct diplomacy with foreign nations,’ the official said. The current bipartisan sanctions legislation provides new sanctions authorities for the president to conduct foreign diplomacy.’
And Despite Graham and Blumenthal having worked on the bill together in the Senate for months, Thune believed it may be better if a sanctions package comes from the House.
He said that what is more likely to happen is that the House originates the legislation because it’s a revenue measure, which typically starts in the lower chamber.
‘We had one available to us in the Senate. We could do it here,’ Thune said. ‘But I think, too, if you want to expedite movement in terms of getting it on the president’s desk, it’s probably quicker if it comes out of the House, comes over to us, to take it up and process it on the floor.’
But there may be an issue with the House starting the process.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital that, based on conversations with Thune, he understood that the legislation would originate in the Senate and then be shipped to the House. It was ‘news’ to him when Thune made the case that the House should be at the start of the legislative process.
He warned that, in the House, it would be ‘a much more laborious, lengthy process,’ and that he was of the notion that the Senate would send its bipartisan package to them, which would make it easier to pass.
‘The reason is because it’s a faster track to get it done,’ Johnson said. ‘If it originates in the House, then it goes to seven different committees of jurisdiction, which, as you know, takes a long time to process. And even if I can convince some of the chairmen to waive jurisdiction, not all of them will.’
But there are procedural hurdles that could bog down the process in the Senate, too.
So far, the original version of the bill has sat in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs since April. It would have to be considered in committee, then discharged and then put on the floor — and at any point could be blocked along the way.
Still, there is hope that movement on the bill will come to fruition. And both Graham and Blumenthal have been tweaking the legislation in the background to best meet the White House’s desires.
Blumenthal told Fox News Digital after a recent meeting with Graham that the bill was largely the same but wouldn’t get into specifics on what the changes were.
He noted that Trump’s move to sanction two major Russian oil companies, which took effect Friday, was a good start.
‘I think we’re waiting to finalize the bill and see what the president thinks about it,’ Blumenthal said. ‘And, obviously, he’s imposed sanctions already on India, on two major Russian oil companies, so he’s in the right frame of mind.’
