House of Representatives unlikely to approve tougher anti-Russian sanctions — journalist

House of Representatives unlikely to approve tougher anti-Russian sanctions — journalist Andrew Desiderio called the chances of approval "iffy"© Yegor Aleyev/TASSWASHINGTON, August 8. /TASS/. Chances that the House of Representatives of the US Congress will approve a bill to toughen sanctions on Russia and Iran are low, said Andrew Desiderio, a journalist with the Punchbowl News portal. "House passage iffy," he wrote on the X social network. In turn, Democratic congressmen Gregory Meeks and Don Beyer opposed the initiative, approved by the Senate earlier on Friday. Although they expressed support for anti-Russian sanctions in general, they said that the proposed restrictions "still contain the broadest possible waiver authority for President [Donald] Trump, who already has the power to impose these sanctions on Russia under US law but has refused to do so." "What the bill does grant, however, are sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past," the lawmakers said. "President Trump just last month recklessly imposed new 50% tariffs on our closest trading partner, Canada; there is no reason to believe he would not use the even larger tariffs authorized by this bill in a manner similarly harmful to our alliances and Americans’ wallets." The joint statement says senators had voted against (32-64) an amendment that strips Trump of an opportunity to impose tariffs on countries that import oil or gas from Russia, proposed by Rand Paul and Ron Wyden. "Though the Paul-Wyden amendment to strike the dangerous tariff authorities failed, the vote total demonstrates that continued refinement of the Sanctioning Russia Act is imperative before it can be sent to the president’s desk," the congressmen said. 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