Washington — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday he plans to move forward with a bill to impose sanctions on Russia that has overwhelming bipartisan support, saying “the time is now.”
“I think we need to act,” the South Dakota Republican said on Capitol Hill, shortly after President Trump announced he was on a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mr. Trump said after the phone call that he and Putin agreed to meet soon in Budapest, Hungary. The call with Putin came a day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s planned visit to the White House.
Thune said he didn’t want to commit to a hard deadline for the Senate to pass the sanctions bill, but told reporters it would be “soon.” When asked to define “soon,” he added “within the next 30 days.”
The House remains out of session during the current government shutdown.
Senators have been pushing for months to pass legislation that would impose new economic sanctions to step up pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine. It gained momentum in late May and early June as Mr. Trump seemed more and more frustrated with Putin after Russia escalation of attacks against Ukraine while peace negotiations are at a standstill.
But U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Iran put the measure on the back burner in late June, when it appeared to be on the verge of a vote. The White House also wanted changes to the measure to give the president more flexibility in imposing sanctions.
The sanctions plan was suspended again when Mr. Trump threat on July 14 to impose tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if it does not agree to a ceasefire.
The topic sparked renewed interest in September when Russian drones entered Polish airspace in an attack on Ukraine, weeks after Mr. Trump met with Putin in Alaska. But lawmakers delayed the vote because it had not received the green light from Mr. Trump, which they were waiting for to move forward.
The bill was introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in April and has the support of 84 other senators, all but guaranteeing its passage in the Senate. A companion bill in the House has the support of more than 100 lawmakers.
Thune said Thursday that he met with Graham about the bill and that lawmakers tried to iron out technical issues, including how the bill would be implemented — details that were of concern to the White House.
“I think the time is right,” Thune said. “I hope we can plan it.”
Thune said Graham would file an updated version of the bill, but did not detail how it would be different from the current version. Thune added that it would be “the same basic principle.”
The measure includes a 500% tariff on products imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas and uranium. Senators previously said it was amended to allow the president to lift sanctions for national security reasons.
“Simply lifting sanctions is not unbridled or unlimited authority,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a co-sponsor of the bill, said earlier this year. Blumenthal called the sanctions “burning” and “crushing.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, also supported sanctions, saying Putin was unwilling to talk seriously about ending the war.
“I think we need to send him a message,” Johnson said this summer.
