EDITORIAL: House should send Russian sanctions bill to White House

After months of negotiations and hang-ups, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a Russian sanctions bill this month prior to leaving town on recess. House Speaker Mike Johnson should now round up the votes and send the legislation to the White House.

The bill was sponsored by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. It would grant President Donald Trump the power to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on nations that are helping Russia evade Western sanctions and on the top purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas.

The goal is to discourage countries such as China from financing Vladimir Putin’s stalled but deadly effort at Ukrainian conquest.

On Sunday, Sen. Blumenthal urged the lower chamber to act swiftly on the proposal. “It is a moment of extreme urgency, for the reason that Putin may try to escalate, but also because Putin is on his heels economically,” Sen. Blumenthal said on “Face the Nation.” “And this kind of sanctions bill, throttling the flow of revenue to his war machine could undercut completely his ability to wage this brutal, murderous war.”

He noted that Russia is under increasing economic pressure as it has become bogged down in Ukraine. Additional sanctions would further cripple the war effort and bolster Ukraine’s capabilities. Putin’s “economy is on the verge of major crisis,” said Sen. Blumenthal, who recently returned from a trip to Ukraine. “He has a deficit looming of $125 billion, 5 percent of his GDP, an interest rate of 14 percent on his national debt.” The senator added that, “Ukraine is clearly making progress; it’s turning the tide. But it was also heartbreaking to see the toll that this war is taking.”

There will no doubt be challenges to shepherding the bill through the House — from Republicans who oppose American interventions abroad and Democrats who abhor the thought of empowering Mr. Trump. Analysts at the libertarian Cato Institute have also pointed out that the legislation does not specifically define the metrics for determining which countries make the list, raising the possibility of potential manipulation by the administration.

Cato raises a legitimate point, but the perfect mustn’t be the enemy of the good.

This bill is the result of long, drawn-out negotiations and compromise between the White House and Senate Democrats and Republicans. It passed the upper chamber 86-11, no small feat given the current hyperpartisan political climate. The time to act is now, as Russia gets mired deeper in the muck. The House should follow the Senate’s lead and authorize the president to impose sanctions on countries abetting Putin’s war sputtering machine.