“I don’t know what they will do on their side," Sen. Bob Corker says of House GOP. | AP Photo Senate moves to ease House's holdup of Russia sanctions bill

The Senate has sent the House a proposal to fix the hitch that has delayed a popular package of bipartisan sanctions on Iran and Russia — including limits on President Donald Trump’s power to ease penalties against Vladimir Putin’s government.

The holdup of a sanctions bill that passed the Senate with 98 votes has alarmed Democrats who worry the House GOP may be using the cover of a constitutional objection to make Trump-friendly changes or bottle up the legislation entirely. But Republicans have vowed that they are committed to getting tougher on Tehran and Moscow, dismissing any suggestion that the procedural hiccup is politically motivated.


Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that the necessary tweak to the upper chamber’s sanctions bill involves “a small, little language change” and that GOP members and staff on both sides of the Capitol “are all working together.”

But it’s up to the House to approve the Senate’s proposed “easy fix,” Corker added in a brief interview: “I don’t know what they will do on their side. I hope they will take it up quickly and I think they may well do that.”

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A spokeswoman for House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) confirmed receipt of the Senate’s language. "We're making good progress on this issue and working to make sure we get this right,” the spokeswoman added.

The trigger for the delay of the Senate’s Iran and Russia sanctions package, according to a source familiar with the holdup, is one provision in the vast bill that empowers Congress to prevent Trump from easing or ending sanctions on Russia. Altering sanctions could affect the amount revenue collected by the government, and any bill affecting revenue is constitutionally required to start off in the House.

Democrats openly suspect that the House’s so-called “blue slip” objection to the sanctions bill is a thinly veiled excuse to help the Trump administration make progress on its stated goal of warmer relations with Russia.

“Is the White House encouraging House Republicans to delay this bill so they can offer the Russians something in their upcoming talks?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked in a Wednesday floor speech. “We don’t know, it sure seems possible. Even likely. And it’s a flat-out-wrong approach. As Democrats and Republicans in this chamber agree.”

Brady has pushed back at the implication that House Republicans are aiding Trump by delaying the bill. The Texas Republican told reporters Tuesday that "I strongly support sanctions against Iran and Russia, holding them accountable,” adding that “at the end of the day, this isn’t a policy issue, it’s not a partisan issue — it is a constitutional issue that we will address in Congress.”

The Senate passed the combined Iran-Russia sanctions bill, 98-2, on Thursday despite resistance from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who testified before Corker's committee that he would not want to see legislation that might "close the channels off" with Moscow.

The German and Austrian governments also have criticized the Senate-passed bill as a bid to undercut Russia's proposed natural gas pipeline to Europe, another possible hurdle for the sanctions package on its way to Trump's desk.

But for Democrats who fought to rein in Trump's Russia policy during talks on the Iran sanctions, the prospect of a lengthy slowdown in House consideration of the Senate bill is already causing heartburn.

If the House GOP forces the Senate sanctions bill back to four possible committees that could get a crack at the issue, one senior Senate Democratic aide said Wednesday, "It would get our dander up — because there would be real concern that it would be an effort to slow-walk it."