Congress Braces for Russia Sanctions Face-Off With White House as New Deadline Looms
Lawmakers are furious that the White House has put enforcing sanctions against Russian on the backburner.
ANDREW DESIDERIO
11.24.17 12:00 AM ET
Rarely has the executive branch been accused so often of violating—or outright ignoring—the will of Congress.
The Trump administration’s slow implementation of new sanctions against Russia has spurred the legislative branch to consider how to flex its muscles as Congress tries to act as a check on an executive branch that seems unwilling to carry out basic law enforcement.
“I really do think whether you’re the president of the United States or a United State senator or a Supreme Court justice, you take the oath that you take seriously to uphold the Constitution of the United States,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Daily Beast in a recent interview. “I know there’s a limit to the power of Congress—sometimes I’m disappointed there’s a limit, but there’s a limit to what power we have. There’s a limit to the power of the president of the United States.”
For months, a bipartisan group of senators has put pressure on the administration over its reluctance to move forward on enacting new sanctions against Russia. The law stipulating those sanctions—which President Trump was forced to sign in August after the legislation passed with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate—has come under direct assault from the White House, dating back to the dog days of summer when it was first being crafted.
More recently, though, the Trump administration blew past an Oct. 1 deadline to issue guidance on how it would implement the sanctions, which will target individuals and entities in the Russian defense and intelligence sectors in retaliation for its election meddling and incursions into eastern Europe. When lawmakers asked questions about the delay, they were left in the dark. It was only after Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) pressed Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan directly late last month during a phone call that the State Department belatedly issued guidance on how it would implement the sanctions—26 days after it was due. Corker—who has been engaged in his own feuds and disagreements with Trump—got results. But it shouldn’t have even reached that point, lawmakers argue.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/congress-braces-for-russia-sanctions-face-off-with-white-house-as-new-deadline-looms
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