The Senate votes
overwhelmingly to pass a bill increasing sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass a bill increasing sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, establishing veto-proof majorities for the measure that also allows Congress to block President Donald Trump from easing sanctions against Moscow.
The 98-2 vote sets up the president with a pivotal choice: veto the bill knowing that lawmakers are prepared to override him, as his incoming communications chief Anthony Scaramucci suggested Thursday on CNN that he might, or sign the legislation that binds his hands when it comes to altering sanctions policy against Moscow, a provision his administration lobbied hard against.
Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were the only senators to vote against the bill. The two were also the only votes against an earlier version of the legislation the Senate passed last month, also by a vote of 98-2, that focused on just Russia and Iran.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say Thursday whether the president would veto the bill. “We’re going to wait and see what that final legislation looks like and make a decision at that point,” she said.
But on CNN earlier in the day, Scaramucci said Trump “may veto the sanctions” in order to “negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians.”
It is unlikely that promise will be persuasive to members of Congress, who banded together to endorse unprecedented oversight powers over the president’s sanctions authority, a sign of many lawmakers’ concerns that Trump is fostering a too-warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Under the bill, the president is required to notify Congress before making any alterations to Russia sanctions policy, and lawmakers then have 30 days in which they can block the president from implementing those changes. The procedure, known as “congressional review,” is the most sweeping authority in decades that Congress has given itself to check the president on sanctions policy.
Such matters traditionally have been left to the executive branch once Congress authorizes the sanctions at the administration’s disposal. Even in the case of mandatory sanctions, Congress usually steers clear of the president on matters of national security.
Beyond the congressional review provision, the bill codifies existing sanctions and steps up sanctions against Moscow over Russia’s involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria, as well as allegations it interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. The bill also stiffens punitive measures against Iran and North Korea in an attempt to curtail those countries’ ballistic missile tests and other activities.