Congress Should Not Water Down Sanctions Against Russia

On Friday, June 6th, the Wall Street Journal reported that for weeks, the Trump Administration has been quietly pressuring the Senate to water down sanctions against Russia and its oil and gas trading partners. As reported by the WSJ, the Administration would like to lighten the sanctions bill so it can continue to improve its relationship with Russia instead of punishing the country for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Administration has been asking Graham’s office to add waivers to the bill that would grant President Trump the unilateral power to choose which countries receive the sanctions and would be exempt from them. Another way it is seeking to weaken the bill would be to replace “shall” with “may” in the bill’s text, giving the Administration latitude not to implement certain parts of the bill if it were to become law. While asking for these kinds of changes is not uncommon with high-profile bills to give the President more flexibility, these changes “would make the legislation toothless,” according to legislative aides, as “….Trump already can impose sanctions at will.”

Graham has said he already plans to make changes to the bill, such as carving out sanctions for countries that buy petroleum from Russia but also provide military or economic support to Ukraine. These exemptions would protect European Allies from the 500% tariffs the bill would impose on imports from countries that purchase Russian Petroleum or Uranium products.

According to the WSJ, the Senate bill has 82 veto-proof cosponsors while the House companion bill has 60 cosponsors. Cosponsors on the House bill increased by over twenty just in the past week.

The bills have been pushed forward using a “Noah’s Ark” approach. It requires one Republican and one Democrat to sign up together as cosponsors to maintain the bill’s bipartisan nature.

“There are many members of Congress who want us to sanction Russia as strongly as we can,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said. “And I’m an advocate of that.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.), also a co-sponsor of Graham’s bill, said this week there is “a high level of interest” in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, on moving on the sanctions. “They’re still hopeful they’ll be able to strike some sort of a deal,” Thune said.

U.S. support for Ukraine has been a rare topic in Congress that has continued to garner strong bipartisan support since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, especially considering these polarizing times, with many lawmakers making multiple trips to Ukraine to evaluate the situation on the ground.

“I could foresee some scenario where it would be so watered down, we wouldn’t like it, but I don’t think Lindsey is going to agree to that,” Senator Tim Kaine said. “Lindsey’s been tough on this, and if he thinks some minor adjustments could work, I’m still going to be favorably inclined.”

American Ukrainian PAC thanks the bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats who have signed onto this bill and the leaders in both chambers who support the bill. We agree with Lindsey Graham that a carve-out should be made for Ukraine’s European partners, but otherwise, the bill should pass as is.

It’s only with punishing global sanctions against its gas, oil, and uranium products, Russia will be forced to the peace negotiation table.