Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are eager to pass a Democratic-sponsored Russian sanctions bill and see if President Trump would sign it considering his “inability” to deal with the foreign power.
“Given the many transgressions of Russia, and President Trump’s seeming inability to deal with them, a strong sanctions bill such as the one Democrats and Republicans have just agreed to is essential,” Schumer said Saturday. “I expect the House and Senate will act on this legislation promptly, on a broad bipartisan basis and send the bill to the president’s desk.”
“Russia’s outrageous and unacceptable behavior in our election and in Europe demands that we have strong, statutory sanctions enacted as soon as possible,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Even though the Senate passed legislation to do just that by a margin of 98 to 2, I am concerned by changes insisted upon by Republicans that give the GOP leadership the sole power to originate actions in the House to prevent the Trump administration from rolling back sanctions.”
On Thursday, House Democratic leaders introduced a bill that would impose sanctions on Russia.
By Saturday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced a vote on the Russia, Iran and North Korea Sanctions Act had been scheduled for Tuesday.
The new legislation is identical to a Senate-approved bill on the issue, but originated in the House, a requirement of all revenue-raising bills.
“We felt on the Democratic side it was imperative since we hadn’t really made progress and we wanted it clear that we were not the ones stalling the bill, that we do something today to show that we want to move forward,” New York Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
* This article has been updated to include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s statement.
