Obstacles mount for quick action on Russia sanctions

Legislation that would slap new financial penalties on Russia is running into a familiar obstacle: congressional inertia.

Top Republican senators are warning that Congress won’t approve new sanctions quickly, even though many in the upper chamber want to pass something in the wake of the Helsinki summit.

{mosads}Complicating the path for the flurry of bills, two key Senate committees are first planning to hold a slate of hearings related to Russia and existing sanctions legislation that will likely run through August. The House, meanwhile, is leaving town this week until September with no plans to pass a bill.

The congressional calendar ensures that any fight over Russia sanctions gets dragged into the fall and pushed against the partisan midterm election landscape, where many Republicans are fighting for their political lives.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, brushed aside questions about why a bill isn’t moving faster, saying senators don’t do “ready-fire-aim” policies.

“The Helsinki press conference was a sad day for our country and everyone knows it, but still, when you move ahead with laws and sanctions, hearings are appropriate,” he said. “Moving a bill three days after a deplorable press conference is not an intelligent thing to do.”

Corker, a critic of President Trump who spearheaded a 2017 Russia sanctions bill, added that senators want to be “methodical” and not “rush in with our hair on fire.”

Trump sparked widespread backlash when he refused to denounce Russia’s election meddling during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.

His rhetoric was considered by most lawmakers to be a political disaster and forced Republicans to go on defense to verbally distance themselves from the president, whose warmer stance toward Putin  has mystified members of his own party.

A flurry of potential legislative responses to Trump’s rhetoric has been floated: A bill from Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to slap penalties on Russia if the director of national intelligence determines it meddled in a future election is picking up more bipartisan support. Meanwhile, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) are drafting a bill that would automatically impose tough new sanctions on Russia.

“I’m doing everything but the kitchen sink,” Graham told reporters about his upcoming bill.

In addition, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) has legislation that would ask the State Department to determine if Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism, which would trigger automatic sanctions.

But none of those bills will move this summer.

Both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), announced this week that they would hold a series of hearings to examine a 2017 sanctions bill that placed new penalties on Russia and to weigh any future congressional action that is needed. The move, endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), effectively puts any Senate vote on tougher sanctions on hold until the hearings wrap up.

In addition to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the panel is expected to hold an additional hearing next week and then additional meetings once the Senate returns in mid-August. Crapo, meanwhile, noted on Wednesday that he is already having conversations with committee members, but formal panel hearings won’t start until after Aug. 13.

These announcements have sparked criticism from Democrats that Republicans aren’t serious about standing up to Trump months before the midterm election. GOP leaders, on issues ranging from trade to immigration, have shown little appetite for sparking a confrontation with Trump and angering his base — which they will need in November to keep control of Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) knocked Republicans as doing “virtually nothing” since the Helsinki summit.

“Republicans have failed to take meaningful action to hold the president accountable for his foreign policy blunders in Finland. Republicans have offered words of rebuke, statements, disappointed tweets, but they have not backed those words up with the force of action,” he said from the Senate floor this week.

Fifty-one percent of respondents in a recently released Quinnipiac University survey said they believe the Russian government has something on Trump, while 35 percent said it does not.

Schumer touted the polling as “astounding.”

Asked about Schumer accusing Republicans of being unwilling to confront Trump, Corker noted that the Senate passed new Russia sanctions last year in a 98-2 vote despite pushback from the White House.

When a reporter pointed out that Schumer was referring to Republican actions since Helsinki, the GOP senator responded, “Well, Helsinki happened about a week and a half ago. So, you know, there are efforts that are — I can’t even respond to that.”

GOP leadership has appeared open to passing new sanctions legislation. McConnell mentioned Rubio’s bill while speaking to reporters on Tuesday. And Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Wednesday that he is “certainly interested in doing something else to deter Russia.”

McConnell, in sharp contrast to Trump, has had harsh words for Russia and Putin since the Helsinki summit.

But there are already signs of skepticism that Congress needs to pass tougher Russia sanctions. And formal pushback from the White House as the process moves forward would only feed opposition from Trump’s conservative allies on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted the talk of tougher sanctions when he opposed a Russia-related resolution last week and accused his colleagues of having “Trump derangement syndrome.” Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), while not ruling out supporting additional penalties, has signaled that the United States should work with European allies.

Crapo stressed on Wednesday that he has not decided if the Senate needs to take up a new bill and if his committee would take up already drafted legislation or craft a new proposal.

“We definitely need to be sure that our sanctions regime is very capable to respond. But … we just put together a very extensive sanctions bill last year,” he said. “We are going to have some very extensive briefings and negotiations … and then make that determination.”

The Senate took a symbolic shot at Trump over Russia last week, when it passed a resolution warning Trump not to hand over diplomats to Moscow for questioning. But separate resolutions supporting the intelligence community’s findings that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election have repeatedly been blocked.

GOP Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), whose resolution with Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) has been blocked twice, demurred when asked how the Senate can get a deal on tougher Russia legislation if senators couldn’t even agree to pass a nonbinding resolution.

“I don’t know,” he told The Hill. “That’s my concern, obviously. This [resolution] ought to be a layup.”