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In the days after GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham suddenly died, a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill he had championed gained fresh momentum. But now, the bill is facing headwinds – with some Democrats raising concerns that it could hand too much power to President Donald Trump.
With little time left in session before the midterms, and high-priority items like funding the government still on the to-do list, if any senator moves to delay the bill’s passage they could stop it from reaching the floor at all.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy told CNN on Wednesday that he fears the Senate will spend the last two weeks before August recess on a government funding bill, which could fail, and lose the opportunity to pass any other legislation during that time.
“I think we are pissing away our chance to pass the Graham sanctions bill while we have the votes, and may well be pissing away our chance to pass the crypto bill, because we’re going to spend all of our time on the CR,” he said, referring to a short-term funding bill known as a continuing resolution. “Some of my colleagues are more hopeful than I am. That’s what I see right now. I think the next two and a half weeks is going to be CR and nothing but CR.”
Graham passed away shortly after announcing an agreement had been reached with the Trump administration to move the bill forward. After Graham passed away, supporters of the bill said it would be a fitting tribute to his legacy to swiftly pass the legislation.
But some Senate Democrats are raising concerns that the carefully negotiated legislation hands too much tariff authority to the administration, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren indicating she’d consider slowing down its consideration on the Senate floor. Any one senator can object to swift consideration of legislation, miring it in days of debate time and procedural votes.
As she left a hearing where US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was testifying, Warren told CNN, “I’ve been saying for a year and a half we need tougher sanctions against Russia. That’s very, very important. But Donald Trump has shown what he will do with broad tariff authority. Heck, he’s shown what he’ll do even if he doesn’t have authority.”
“It’s important that we not open a door to let Donald Trump do even more with tariffs. So that’s my concern. I hope we can fix this bill,” she continued.
Pressed on whether she would slow down the bill’s progress if she didn’t see the changes she wanted, Warren replied, “I’d like to see this bill fixed. I think it’s important.”
The sanctions bill would impose mandatory sanctions on Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin, as well as oligarchs, state-owned enterprises, and foreign companies that support Russia’s defense industrial base.
In addition, it would impose up to a 100% tariff on the top five countries, including China and India, that purchase Russian crude oil and natural gas, with Greer determining the final tariff level. It does allow an exemption for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s total natural gas exports and are working to significantly lower their use of Russian natural gas.
The original text of the package had minimum tariffs set to 500%, with fewer exceptions. However, over more than 15 months of negotiations, the administration and congressional negotiators had reached a lower tariff number, but also given the execution power to Greer, rather than the president directly.
Sen. Mark Warner said he also has concerns about the administration’s tariff authority under the updated package.
“I support Russia sanctions, but I’ve held off, you know, co-sponsoring the legislation until I get more clarity on that,” said Warner. “It’s amazing that, you know, I’m trying — to get a clear, concise answer on that has been a little bit of a challenge.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and one of the few senators who has not endorsed any version of the Russia sanctions package, echoed his colleagues’ concerns about granting the administration any more power over tariffs.
“I think it would set a very ominous, you know, precedent. Donald Trump wants one thing in terms of policy, and that’s tariffs. And I don’t think he’s going to follow through on the sanctions, and I think he’ll be all in with respect to tariffs, and it will set a very dangerous precedent,” Wyden told CNN. “If anyone wants to deal with the very legitimate concern about the Ukrainians, I’m all in. But I think this is basically an effort to get more leverage for tariffs.”
However, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democratic cosponsor of the package, argued that they have taken significant steps to narrow the additional tariff authorities the bill would hand to the administration, and noted that the president has been willing to buck Congress on trade policy either way.
“The authority is very narrowly tailored and limited. The five largest producers of Russian oil and gas by strict metrics that are applied by the US trade representative, all of the authorities are very narrowly defined, and the president has already shown that he will interpret very expansively and possibly illegally the authority he has right now,” said Blumenthal.
“The additional authority is the product of painstaking, sometimes painful negotiation to establish strict limits and safeguards. So, I understand and respect the worries people have about his misusing his tariff authority generally, but this bill doesn’t make that danger materially different.”
Asked whether he is concerned that his Democratic colleagues could delay or derail the package, Blumenthal said, “There are certainly some senators who’ve expressed reservations about it.” He said there are ongoing talks about when a vote could happen. “I don’t know what the negotiations have been on possible time agreements. We’re in the midst of — well, I do know there are ongoing negotiations about exactly what the sequence of steps will be, you know whether there’ll be a time agreement, how it’s going to be handled.”
GOP Sen. Katie Britt, who Blumenthal noted has stepped in after Graham’s death to help shepherd the package, said the bill’s backers are “working diligently” to get it passed. “I appreciate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle continuing to find a pathway forward. I think we know it is past time to be able to hold Putin accountable and use economic firepower to drive him to the table and to get an ultimate resolution that everyone wants, which is peace.”
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