FOREIGN POLICY/POLITICS/RUSSIA: “The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday [6-14-17] to allow Congress to block any efforts from the president to scale back sanctions against Russia, and to step up sanctions against Moscow for interfering in the 2016 elections.
The vote of 97 to 2 is a sharp rebuke to President Trump’s posture vis-à-vis Russia and his resistance to the intelligence community’s assessment that the country was behind efforts to influence the election he won.
The two senators who voted against the measure were Republicans Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah).
Trump has repeatedly and openly doubted the veracity of the assessment. And while his administration has not ordered a rollback of any existing sanction, lawmakers have been concerned about his conciliatory, and at times even forgiving, rhetoric about Russia, as well as recent moves to give Moscow back control over two diplomatic compounds that the Obama administration reclaimed in late December. The administration said Russia had been using the facilities for intelligence gathering; when they were shuttered, 35 Russian operatives were also expelled from the country.”
-Karoun Demirjian and Anne Gearan, “Senate overwhelmingly votes to curtail Trump’s power to ease Russia sanctions,” The Washington Post online, June 14, 2017 03:32pm