The facts
On Tuesday, September 15, the House agreed 214-211 to H. Res. 1530, a rule setting up consideration of Senate amendments to the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act. The House Rules Committee records show the rule passed after a 214-208 vote on the previous question. The sanctions bill itself had not yet passed the House.
The Guardian reported that lawmakers expected a general vote on the bill Wednesday. As drafted, the measure targets Russia's energy and defense sectors and its so-called shadow fleet of tankers. It would also give the president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, including China and India. A House Rules Committee amendment list names ten countries as eligible for the secondary tariffs, but that amendment was submitted, not adopted.
Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a September 15 statement that the bill's tariff section could raise gas and food prices and give President Donald Trump broad power to target countries under a vague sanctions-evasion standard. Meeks said he supports tougher sanctions on Russia but wants the tariff language removed.
Our take
Congress is preparing to hand Donald Trump a tariff bazooka and staple a Russia-shaped label on the case. The bill's sales pitch is sanctions. Its most immediately legible feature is permission for the president to tax imports from other countries at 100 percent. That is one hell of a trust exercise for a White House that already treats tariffs like a favorite toy with no off switch.
The argument is not that Russia should get a free pass. The argument is that Washington has designed a punishment for Moscow by giving the president a bigger button marked “make everyone more expensive.” China and India are the headline targets, but the bill also gestures toward countries accused of helping sanctions evasion. That is a remarkably roomy definition for a government that keeps discovering new people to blame after the invoice arrives.
Democrats are stuck in the most ridiculous part of the room. They want to squeeze Putin's war economy, but they do not want to give Trump another tool he can swing at an ally because he woke up irritated. Republicans want the Russia label to do the moral heavy lifting while the tariff authority sits in the trunk like a loaded weapon. Everybody says the gun is for the bad guys. The safety mechanism is apparently a press conference.
The House has not passed the sanctions bill yet. It has passed the bit where everyone pretends the tariff flamethrower will only be pointed at the villains. Washington has reinvented the safety catch as a press release.
