Russia sanctions stall in the House as Democrats object to being frozen out of restraining Trump
By Karoun Demirjian and Mike DeBonis July 10 at 7:52 PM
Popular legislation that would limit President Trump’s ability to lift financial sanctions on Russia is mired in a partisan dispute in the House, with Democrats charging that a recent change would weaken the bill.
The surprising roadblock emerged in recent days as Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Group of 20 summit in Germany and floated the possibility of joining forces with Russia on a cybersecurity initiative, to objections from both parties.
The pending legislation, which passed the Senate on a 98-to-2 vote last month, is effectively a congressional check on Trump: any time the president wants to make a change to sanctions policy on Russia, lawmakers would have a chance to block him.
It is a privilege Congress has infrequently awarded itself — such as in 2015, when lawmakers insisted on a chance to weigh in on the Iran nuclear deal — as presidents are typically afforded broad discretion to impose and lift financial sanctions as a foreign policy tool.
Trump’s warm approach to Russia — along with investigations into whether his campaign colluded with the Kremlin to meddle in the 2016 election — has many lawmakers uneasy about leaving the country’s sanctions policy to the president alone. But House Democrats said they do not trust that House GOP leaders are serious about the effort — and are now worried a recent change to the bill would effectively rob them of their ability to raise objections to Trump’s Russia sanctions moves in the future.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/russia-sanctions-stall-in-the-house-as-democrats-object-to-being-frozen-out-of-restraining-trump/2017/07/10/2bae412a-65ad-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html
