Democrats and Republicans are at odds over the legislation of a new sanctions bill on Russia that was voted on and passed through the Senate in early June, only to be blocked by the House last week, reportedly, on a technicality. That technicality being that the House parliamentarian flagged a provision in the bill under what is commonly referred to as a "blue slip" problem. House Republicans have said that it's a constitutional matter because it violates the Constitution. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said quite simply that "the Senate screwed up." Democrats, however, see it differently as House Republicans intentionally finding a reason to block the bill due to pressure from the Trump administration to not put Sanctions on Russia.

Doubt with Congress over bill

Some Democrats have even gone further to suggest that there are ways for the House to get around that technicality such as Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was one of the many who suggested that Republicans were stalling while others doubted that a "blue slip" violation even existed. A report by the Hill titled: "House Republicans block Russia sanctions bill" said that the sanctions bill was the Senate's "most significant check on the Trump administration's foreign policy". Senators were spurred to vote on more sanctions against Russia before Ukrainian President Poroshenko met briefly with President Trump last week, given the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia.

President Trump's 'foreign policy'

NATO allies have been concerned with how the administration has "flirted" with Russia starting as early as his campaign in the 2016 election. President Trump has also made statements where he has gone after NATO members saying that they should not have protection if they were not paying their fair share for the security.

NATO member states that border Russia moved more troops to their borders last October over the looming possibility that Donald Trump would become President, believing that Russia would now have no qualms about invading or attacking those members. Russian forces have also done the same on their side blaming NATO for instigating those tensions.

Investigation on Trump-Russia relationship

But there is also the matter of an ongoing -- now criminal -- investigation into what the Intelligence community says was interference from the Kremlin into the 2016 Presidential Election which favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. This was further confirmed by a report that said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) alerted former President Obama that Russian President Vladimir Putin gave orders to his officials to interfere in the election.

Other investigations are also being conducted on Trump campaign aides and now more recently, an expanding criminal probe by special prosecutor Robert Mueller on President Trump for attempting to stop those investigations.

Trump's sporadic view of NATO - as it fits into his unpredictable foreign policy agenda with Russia -- has raised enough red flags to determine that putting sanction power into the President's hands could prove dangerous.

Sanctions bill will stop Trump

The sanctions in the new legislation would go after individuals who are tied to "malicious cyber activity", also those who are providing weapons to Russia's ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and those who are associating with Russian intelligence and defense. This would likely point Iran as well as the bill includes sanctions on Russia's other ally in the region. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with the House Foreign Affairs Committee over a week ago where he expressed concern about the sanctions bill, saying that it would undercut "constructive dialogue" with the Russians.

Tillerson has already tried to stop sanctions on Russia before when he was making deals with Putin as CEO of Exxon Mobil.

The new Secretary of State is one of the few to receive one of Russia's highest honors with a Friendship Award. Tillerson was also slammed by lawmakers in the same hearing for wanting to weaken the State Department under Trump's budget proposal. The new sanctions bill also includes giving Congress the ability to review and block President Trump from relaxing or even lifting sanctions on Russia while they're on recess in August for 30 or 60 days. It would also codify the sanctions placed by the former Obama administration and make sure that Trump could put more on the Kremlin rather than the opposite.
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