The North Korea sanctions were a late addition to the package, spearheaded by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. | Cliff Owen/AP House approves Russia sanctions that handcuff Trump

The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved new sanctions on Russia, Iran, and North Korea, with the GOP-controlled chamber advancing a significant new constraint on President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

The sanctions legislation, which allows lawmakers to block Trump from any attempt to roll back sanctions against Moscow, is expected to pass the Senate in similarly bipartisan fashion before next month’s recess.


The White House has yet to say definitively whether Trump would sign the bill, which his administration had criticized for failing to give him necessary “flexibility” to work on warmer relations with Russia. But it appears the votes would be there for Congress to override any veto from Trump.

The House’s 419-3 vote on the sanctions bill saw only three dissenters: GOP Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, John Duncan of Tennessee and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Even Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Russia’s staunchest defender on the Hill, revealed hours before the vote that he would support the measure out of support for its penalties against Tehran and Pyongyang.

Lawmakers in both parties hailed the vote and pressed the White House to publicly support the bill, after the administration had tried to secure more Trump-friendly changes after the Senate passed an earlier version on a 98-2 vote.

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“Senate Republican leaders should move this bill as soon as possible, so that it can be on the president's desk without delay,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “Passing the bill on a bipartisan basis will send a strong signal to the White House that the Kremlin needs to be held accountable for meddling in last year's election.”

After the House and Senate reached a bipartisan deal to move forward on Saturday, the White House signaled it would back the bill after other alterations were made to ease its impact on industry. But new White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the president had not yet committed to signing the sanctions package into law.

"While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President’s desk," Sanders said in a statement.

In addition to giving lawmakers veto power over any relaxation of sanctions on Russia, the bill also converts some existing penalties into law, thus making them more difficult to remove. The legislation’s sanctions against Iran are designed to target its supporters of terrorism and its missile development capabilities.

The North Korea sanctions were a late addition to the package, spearheaded by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and track with those included in a bill the House passed 419-1 in May. But the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, New York Rep. Eliot Engel, suggested in a floor speech ahead of the vote that the Senate may have lingering issues with the approach the House took on that bill.

“[I]t seems we may be on the floor before we ironed out all the differences with the other body,” Engel said of the Senate. “I hope that’s not the case.”

Andrew Hanna contributed to this report.