House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel said the Trump administration is four months late to a deadline requiring a report on the U.S. government’s efforts to impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Russia. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo Congress Dems accuse Trump of flouting Russia sanctions deadline

The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs and Financial Services Committees are accusing the Trump administration of violating a law requiring a report on human rights abuses in Russia.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs panel, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the Financial Services chairwoman, on Monday said the Trump administration is four months late to a deadline requiring a report on the U.S. government’s efforts to impose sanctions on human rights abusers in Russia.


“Given the concerning increase and high profile of human rights violations in Russia, it is important that the administration take action under the Russia Magnitsky Act in order to send a clear signal to members of Vladimir Putin’s repressive government that their actions will not go unanswered and make clear to the world the United States’ profound concern about the deteriorating human rights conditions in the Russian Federation,” Engel and Waters wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

A Democratic aide said the Trump administration “had assured us at working levels that the report was done and just delayed by bureaucracy,” but Engel and Waters moved to demand the report on Monday “once it became clear that we were facing a more protracted delay.”

The committee chairs are demanding the annual report and an explanation for its delay by May 17.

The Trump administration has come under fire from Democrats and Republicans for slow-walking the implementation of mandatory sanctions against Russia, including those intended to punish Moscow for its interference in the 2016 presidential election.

