Senate Passes Tough Russia Sanctions Bill and Awaits House Approval While Trump Administration Issues New Sanctions

IMPORTANT: The full content of this page is available to premium users only.

Friday, June 23, 2017
Author: 
Farhad Mirzadeh and Babak Hoghooghi
Volume: 
33
Issue: 
6
Abstract: 

On June 15, 2017, the Senate approved a new round of sanctions on the Russian Federation, and is awaiting a house vote on the matter. In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, the measure passed by a 98-2 vote, and would be the strongest rebuke to date of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.  It is also the first major piece of foreign policy legislation that the Senate has considered this year to gain such support from both parties. The measures against Russia are in an underlying bill that also further sanctions Iran for its ballistic missile tests and engagement of the country’s Revolutionary Guard. Supporters of the bill cited Russia’s election interference, in addition to Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria, as reasons for ratcheting up sanctions. The bill now goes to the House Foreign Affairs committee for review before it goes to a full house vote.