Senate Takes Up Legislation on Nord Stream 2 Sanctions

The White House is pushing Democrats to vote against the measure.

By and
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Good afternoon from Capitol Hill, where both chambers are back in session this week. With a surge in coronavirus cases, it doesn’t feel like a typical work period, though—about 21 percent of House members voted remotely on Monday.

Nord Stream 2 Sanctions Up in the Senate

Democrats are working to defeat a Republican effort to punish entities involved with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany, arguing the move would undercut President Joe Biden’s negotiating hand amid high-profile talks with Russia.

The maneuvering will play out in the Senate over the next few days, with members feeling a palpable sense of urgency as up to 100,000 Russian troops have amassed near the border of Ukraine in recent weeks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previously agreed to allow a vote on the bill, sponsored by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, by the end of the week in exchange for ending a delay on the confirmation of dozens of diplomatic nominees.

The GOP legislation would require the president to impose penalties on those involved in the “planning, construction, or operation” of Nord Stream 2 no later than 15 days after its passage. It also gives Congress a pathway to reimpose sanctions should Biden waive them. Opponents of the pipeline, which stretches 750 miles under the Baltic Sea, say it would tighten Moscow’s grip on key U.S. allies and undercut Ukraine’s access to transit fees. 

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  1. learnin4life

    Excellent backgrounder on the machinations of Congress about Nord Stream 2! I appreciate your efforts to shed light on the nuts and bolts of governance.👍

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    MarqueG68

    Re: Biden's urgency to please Putin

    It's as bad as Trump's--maybe worse, if you assume Biden is less stupid than Trump.

    This is why I can't vote for Dems at the national level. They want to castrate domestic energy production, and facilitate energy production that benefits primarily America's most aggressive enemies. Insanity!

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      Charlie Hall

      Actually US oil and gas production is up under Biden. And it is surprising that the same people who blast Biden for cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline also complain that he allows too many foreign oil imports and that the price of oil is too high.

      Most US oil imports are from Canada and Mexico, which used to be friendly countries prior to Trump. And the US now exports slightly more than it imports.

      One can argue for the value of policies that encourage exporting petroleum -- as a free trader I support them -- but insanity is just too strong a word. Trade wars are insanity.

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    JohnM.

    Really good reporting on this issue. Thank you both.

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    Ben Connelly

    “ with members feeling a palpable sense of urgency as up to 100,000 Russian troops have amassed near the border of Ukraine in recent weeks”

    No kidding.

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    Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

    Dear Haley Byrd Wilt and Charlotte Lawson,

    "NASA brings in millions of dollars from the leasing authorities, money that has been used in the past for repairs and facility improvements."

    Yes, this is the silver lining, but the reality is that NASA can get these millions of dollars, because it owns a lot of underused facilities.

    What does it say about the NASA of today compared to the NASA of yesterday, which had legitimate use for these now underused facilities?

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    Jean-Christophe Jouffrey

    Dear Haley Byrd Wilt and Charlotte Lawson,

    "a Republican effort to punish entities involved with the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany,"

    We hear constantly for the last few days that no third country can intervene in the affairs between Ukraine and NATO, all of which are sovereign countries, no matter what is claimed regarding the national security of said third country. This is contrary to international law and customs.

    Good!

    Why is it that some want the US to "punish" entities involved in the construction of a pipeline between 2 sovereign countries? "endanger national security among European Union member states and the United States"

    Why do we make it that easy for Putin and other autocrats to claim that the West are just a bunch of hypocrites who do not believe in any of the "principles" which they insist in applying to others but not to themselves?

    Why are we surprised that less countries in the world are willing to listen, when we speak with them about the beauty of "liberal democracy"?

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      Paul Reichardt

      Republican Ted Cruz seems to be leading the charge. I presume his noted opposition to Nord Stream 2, likely to enrich Russian firms over European and American counterparts with interests in the relevant markets, is entirely coincidental to the fact that that he takes in more Texas oil-and-gas lobbying money than anyone else in the Senate.

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