Senate Forges Ahead on Graham’s Russia Sanctions And Tariffs Bill, Though House Democrats Throw Cold Water on Proposal

The Senate has taken another procedural step to advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act — a bill which would give President Trump immense new powers to tighten the vice on Russia’s fledgling economy. While the bill has the support of more than 80 senators, Democrats in the House are throwing cold water on the idea that the lower chamber can swiftly pass the bill. The Russia sanctions bill, as it has become known, was championed by Senator Lindsey Graham up until the day he died. Graham passed away suddenly at the age of 71 earlier this month from an aortic dissection on the very same day that he had returned from a trip to Ukraine. Shortly after returning home, he spoke with Mr. Trump by phone. Graham died just hours later.Now, in an effort to honor him, senators are moving at what the Senate would consider a breakneck pace to pass the Graham sanctions bill. “I’m gonna begin by channeling my inner Lindsey Graham to say this is a big effin’ deal,” Graham’s Democratic co-sponsor on the bill, Senator Richard Blumenthal, said at a press conference just days after Graham’s death. “Sanctions will be a decisive factor in this war,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “It is truly a tribute to Senator Graham that we are at this point.”On Wednesday, a procedural step was taken to begin debating the bill by a margin of 84 to 12. The margin for that procedural step all but guarantees that the Senate will pass the bill by the end of next week, at the very latest. Senators are set to leave town for a five-week recess beginning next Friday. If enacted, the Graham bill would hand Mr. Trump additional powers to levy sanctions and tariffs against Russia’s allies — both foreign governments and private firms. The bill requires that new sanctions be placed on President Putin and his allies in the quasi-private sector and the military, several Russian banks, and energy production firms. The legislation would allow Mr. Trump to waive those sanctions after monthslong periods of review, however, giving Democrats some concerns that the president could give Mr. Putin relief if Mr. Trump chose to do so.The tariff aspect of the bill is also concerning to many Democrats. Just months after Mr. Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court, opposition party members are wary of giving Mr. Trump any additional legal pathways to imposing new tariffs on allies. Graham’s bill, if it becomes law, would allow Mr. Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on certain purchasers of Russian energy products. Countries like China, India, Turkey, and America’s European allies could be subject to those tariffs. Even if the Senate is able to pass the bill — which is all but guaranteed at this point — it is unclear if the legislation can pass through the House. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the lower chamber have drawn up their own bill, which Democrats have championed. The authors of that House bill have said that the Senate version grants Mr. Trump far too much power. “This is not so much a sanctions bill as it is a massive backdoor authority for President Trump to impose more tariffs, including on our European allies, that hurt American families. The sanctions the bill does contain are entirely at Donald Trump’s discretion, and he has made clear repeatedly that he would rather waive sanctions on Russia than impose new ones,” the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Gregory Meeks, said in a statement earlier this month.

Senate Forges Ahead on Graham’s Russia Sanctions And Tariffs Bill, Though House Democrats Throw Cold Water on Proposal

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