The bipartisan sanctions bill against Russia has hit another roadblock, as some Democrats are working to remove a presidential waiver and block the president from being granted sweeping powers on tariffs.
The opposition marks another delay for a widely supported bill that has sat on ice for months over resistance from President Trump. The bill, sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), has 85 co-sponsors, making it soluble even if the president vetoes it.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are in negotiations with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) on how best to advance companion legislation in the House.
Some Democratic critics say Graham’s bill is flawed, arguing that granting a presidential waiver on sanctions defeats the purpose of the legislation, and granting the president tariff authorities legitimizes a power at the center of a case pending before the Supreme Court.
“Democrats are open to negotiating a path forward that puts real sanctions pressure on Russia, but there are significant concerns that the Graham bill grants an extremely broad presidential waiver that defeats the purpose of the bill,” a Democratic congressional aide told The Hill.
“And while the bill doesn’t actually require Trump to finally hold Russia accountable, it does grant him new authority to impose tariffs, legitimizing his illegal trade war that’s raising costs for American families.”
Democrats and Republicans supportive of Ukraine are under pressure to move quickly on a measure that backs Kyiv and punishes Moscow because Trump has revived efforts to reach a deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Me and Greg and Steny are figuring out what our best path is to get something out of the House into the Senate to take this issue up,” Fitzpatrick told The Hill on Tuesday.
Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s supporters in Congress are worried Witkoff is pushing terms that reward Moscow and weaken Kyiv.
“I was angry,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said about the administration’s initial proposal for a 28-point peace plan.
“Give up more land, cut your army down. Can’t be in NATO. You can’t have foreign troops on your soil. That was a surrender document that Witkoff pushed forward, and I think it is an embarrassment,” he added.
Bacon is the lone Republican signature on Meeks’s discharge petition for his Ukraine Support Act, which would sanction Russia and provide about $8 billion in military support to Ukraine, among other measures. The petition has 214 signatures, four shy of the 218 needed to bring it to the floor.
Fitzpatrick is holding back on filing a discharge petition on the companion bill to the Senate version of the Russia sanctions bill amid discussions with Meeks and Hoyer.
The Republican said he supports Meeks’s legislation but is not yet willing to add his name to the petition because he doesn’t believe it will pass the Senate.
Instead, the trio is discussing whether to add Fitzpatrick’s Russia sanctions bill — which mirrors the Senate version — to Meeks’s discharge petition.
“The question is do we move both together? Do we drop both into a shell as separate titles and bring them both to the floor for a vote? That’s what we’re trying to work through now,” Fitzpatrick said.
“But when you have a shell discharge, you only have one opportunity to drop something in, you can’t go back.”
Fitzpatrick said he was not “wed” to language in the Senate version of the bill.
“The original version was tweaked a little bit with bipartisan support in the Senate and the White House,” he said. “I’m not wed to that language.”
Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.), Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan Ukraine Caucus, signaled he was fine with Fitzpatrick’s Russia sanctions bill.
“I think Meeks’s bill is more all-encompassing, but Fitzpatrick’s is more likely to pass the Senate,” he said Tuesday.
While Trump said last month it was “OK” for Congress to move forward with the bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) entered a stand-off on which chamber would go first.
Fitzpatrick said he wants to agree on a strategy this week.
“I just want a pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia bill to emerge out of the House so that the Senate takes something up and sends something back to us,” Fitzpatrick said.