A bill imposing sanctions on Russia and Iran that in theory has broad support from both parties has been has been stalled by convoluted fights over substance and process that are threatening to derail the measure, even after it passed 98-2 in the Senate and seemed to be on a path toward quickly becoming law.
The battle has Democrats charging that Republicans are looking to make it easier for President Trump to waive sanctions against Russia, while the GOP charges that Democrats are needlessly delaying the bill’s passage.
And in the meantime, the process for considering the bill has become so complicated that even some congressional aides struggle to describe the exact status of the bill, including whether the bill is technically in the House or the Senate.
In mid-June, the Senate passed the legislation in a near-unanimous vote, which was made possible by the addition of language imposing sanctions on Russia for its election meddling and its aggression against Crimea. The bill featured a twist from the usual sanctions bills — language that would let Congress disapprove of any decision by President Trump to waive the sanctions.
That language reflected fears by Democrats that Trump would simply waive sanctions against Russia, which reflects the Democrats’ view that Trump has ties to Russia and would be looking to avoid sanctions decisions. The importance of the bill to Democrats has only increased given this week’s revelations that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in 2016 after she promised to give him incriminating information against Hillary Clinton.
When it got to the House, Republicans said the bill improperly had implications for federal revenues, since the Constitution says all revenue measures must start in the House. Democrats were skeptical that the GOP was raising a real “blue slip” issue with the bill, but on June 29, the Senate quickly passed a resolution aimed at tweaking the language to fix the revenue issue.
But the Senate also made another change, one that stripped language that Republicans and Democrats agree would have let any member of the House call up a resolution disapproving of a White House decision to waive the sanctions. The language said it “shall be in order” to proceed to consider these resolutions.
Democrats immediately cried foul, and said that change means that while lawmakers could still introduce these resolutions to fight White House moves to waive the sanctions, they would not necessarily have to come up for a vote. Democrats say it would effectively be left to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., whether to consider these measures at all.
“The impact of striking that language is that the bill is treated like any other piece of legislation, meaning that it can only come to the Floor if the Speaker allows it,” said one aide to House Democrats.
That change is important to Democrats, since the novel idea in the bill was to ensure Congress has a say if Trump decides to go easy on Russia.
Democrats on Wednesday were proposing a change that would let a designee of the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House propose a resolution disapproving of a sanctions waiver decision. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Democrats think it’s only fair to give the option to both parties.
“I’m strongly of the belief that both the minority and the majority need to bring as they can in the Senate a resolution of disapproval for a vote,” he said.
Hoyer also said he was talking about the will with Ryan, and hoped for a vote this week. But there were few signs of a deal as of Wednesday, and Republicans seemed prepared to hold firm to the Senate language that Democrats oppose.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said the Democratic proposal is seen by the GOP as a delay tactic.
“This is grandstanding and not a serious effort to resolve this issue and hold Russia accountable,” she told the Washington Examiner. “This new package effectively means that the Senate would have to consider it all over again further delaying passing a sanctions package.”
Democratic opposition to the Senate fix is creating additional complications related to the status of the bill. When the Senate passed the first version of the bill, the bill was shipped to the House, where it still technically resides. Then the Senate passed a resolution to make the blue slip and the procedural change.
But the bill never left the House, and before the Senate changes can be technically incorporated into the Senate bill, the House still has to send the bill back to the upper chamber.
Democrats have balked at that, leading to GOP complaints of obstruction from the left.
“House Democrats are now standing in the way of progress on this sanctions package,” Strong said.
But Democrats say it’s Republicans who are stalling by not agreeing to some other process that could result in a bill Democrats support. Hoyer rejected the idea Democrats are to blame, and said Republicans could quickly set up a vote on a compromise bill if they wanted.
That raises another process issue. While both sides talk about quickly getting the bill up for a vote on the House floor, another House aide told the Washington Examiner that the House Foreign Affairs Committee will still want to consider the bill first. If they insist, that will not only add more time, but could add additional policy wrinkles.
In the meantime, Republicans are already thinking about how to get the bill back to the Senate so the changes they like can be incorporated into that bill, which will allow the House to finally consider it. One House staffer said the bill would normally move between the two chambers by unanimous consent, but he said Democratic opposition is raising the possibility that the House might hold a vote to send it back.
Both parties seem to want to avoid the spectacle of a partisan vote, especially for a process that usually happens effortlessly. But as of Wednesday at least, aides were still scratching their heads when asked how the stalemate might be broken.
“We have no clue,” one House aide said.
