“The professionals in government were just doing their jobs here,” said Daniel Fried, an assistant secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration who also served as a special envoy under President Barack Obama.

The new sanctions are expected to go into effect on Aug. 22. The provisions of the biological and chemical weapons act have previously been used only twice — against Syria in 2013, for its chemical weapons attack on its own population, and this year against North Korea, for the alleged assassination of Kim Jong-un’s half brother with a banned nerve agent in Malaysia.

American officials said some exceptions will be allowed: for equipment that the United States relies upon to send goods and people to the International Space Station, as well as for commercial aircraft equipment involved in the safety of passengers.

Trade between the United States and Russia has been declining since 2013, as relations between the countries have grown increasingly cold. With other sanctions already imposed over the past year against Russia — on its military equipment vendors, on officials engaged in human rights abuses and on oligarchs with close ties to Mr. Putin — trade is likely to tumble even more.

The legislation calls for tougher sanctions to be imposed three months from now if Russia fails several tests, including a determination that it is no longer using chemical or biological weapons, that it provides reliable reassurances that it will not use them in the future, and that it allows international inspectors to ensure compliance — tests that Russia is unlikely to meet.

In a call with reporters on Wednesday, a senior official refused to say whether the United States had any new information on Russia’s involvement in the case. He said the Trump administration accepted months ago that the poison used in the attempt on Mr. Skripal’s and his daughter’s lives was Novichok and that Russia was to blame.

Many in Washington praised the new sanctions.

“We must stand with our British allies, and I’m pleased to see the Trump administration hold Russia accountable for its actions by imposing additional sanctions,” Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said in a statement.