A standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over sanctions language included in the House-passed bill to end normal trade relations with Russia dashed hopes of quickly passing it while President Biden was in Europe and could drag out the legislation for weeks as the Senate faces other looming priorities and an April break.
It’s a significant stumbling block for a bill that passed the House in a 424-8 vote — sparking a surprising unity between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — just to get snagged despite Senate leaders working out a deal to move it quickly.
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Paul is demanding his language linked to human rights-related sanctions get added to the bill. And unlike other recent Russia-related standoffs with the libertarian-leaning GOP senator, he is drawing a red line that he won’t let the bills move quickly unless it is added.
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“We’ve just told them they need to put the definition in there of what a human rights abuse is,” Paul announced. “But we won’t let them pass it unless they put it in there so they’re either going to put it in there or they’re going to be here for a week doing it.”
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It’s hardly the first time Paul has dominated as a buzzsaw for legislation.
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He cautioned he would block quick passage of a nonbinding resolution offering to back Ukraine and denouncing Russia’s attack unless backers included language specifying it didn’t qualify as authorization of force for Ukraine. The language was added into the resolution, which cleared the Senate by unanimous consent, as well as a separate resolution throwing Senate support behind a war crimes investigation.
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And Paul typically gets amendment votes throughout big government funding debates in exchange for signing off on speeding up an agreement.
Senate Republicans seemed to believe they might be able to win Paul over with a similar tactic on the Russia legislation. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 GOP senator, initially announced that Paul had an objection to the trade bill that might be difficult to get him to drop but that “you might be able to solve [them] with an amendment vote or two.”
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The House has passed two Russia-related bills that are now working through the Senate.
The first is the bill to end permanent normal trade relations, known as PNTR. In addition to raising tariffs on goods from Russia and Belarus, it sets up strict guidelines for when the President can restore normal trade relations, reauthorizes and expands the Global Magnitsky Sanctions, and requires the Biden Administration to push for Russia’s removal from the World Trade Organization.
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