Brown helps craft Senate tightening of sanctions

With Sen. Sherrod Brown playing a key role, the Senate overwhelmingly approved an amendment Wednesday aimed at imposing sanctions on Russian individuals and sectors of their economy believed to have interfered with last year’s presidential election.

By a vote of 97-2, the Senate attached the amendment to a bill that imposes new sanctions on Iran for testing ballistic missiles. The Senate is expected to approve the bill as early as this week and send it to the House.

Brown, D-Ohio, a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, was among a group of senators from both parties on the banking panel and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who negotiated the bipartisan agreement.

Just before the vote, Brown told his colleagues: “We must continue to vigorously enforce and strengthen sanctions against Russia, to send a message to its leaders and the world that the United States of America will not tolerate efforts to undermine democracy around the world.”

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also voted for the measure.

The amendment would enact into law sanctions imposed by then-President Barack Obama in 2014 after Russian annexed Crimea and sponsored a separatist war in eastern Ukraine. It also would impose sanctions on those believed to have interfered with the election.

President Donald Trump has not made clear whether he will support extending sanctions on Russia.