Last week, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson warned lawmakers during an unrelated hearing against imposing new sanctions at all, arguing that it would undermine the administration’s efforts to forge new diplomatic channels with Russia.

“The basic message is, if you’re going to do this, give us the flexibility to, if we need to, turn up the heat, or if Russia starts to demonstrate signs that it’s pulling out of Ukraine or fulfilling some of the requirements of the Minsk agreement around Ukraine, that we have the ability to dial back,” said R. C. Hammond, an adviser to Mr. Tillerson, referring to the 2015 cease-fire agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

The Trump administration’s position is not an unusual one. Presidents, who have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to unilaterally impose sanctions in response to national threats, often bristle against attempts by Congress to review or block such moves. Congress, which can impose sanctions through legislation, typically insists on having its own say as a coequal branch of government.

President Barack Obama had similar disputes with Congress over Russia sanctions. And Mr. Obama clashed sharply with lawmakers in 2015 over legislation that gave Congress the power to review the nuclear deal with Iran — which was then being negotiated — and block a move by the president to lift sanctions in exchange for Tehran’s compliance.

But for Mr. Trump, the dispute is complicated by the swirl of inquiries regarding his campaign’s potential collusion with Russia and his highly charged response to those investigations, including his firing of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director who had been leading one of the inquiries.

“The Obama administration would take the exact same position that the Trump administration is taking right now on waivers — any administration would — but this is as much about politics as about the ever-present tension between the executive branch and the legislative branch over sanctions,” said Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions expert who is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan policy organization, and who supports toughening sanctions on Russia.