The Senate’s plans to vote Thursday on legislation to strip Russia of its trade status with the U.S. were scuttled by a dispute over the language of a human rights provision.
That means the bill, and a separate measure to ban Russian oil imports, won’t get a vote until next week, a setback for Democrats who wanted to pass both while President Joe Biden was meeting with European allies to coordinate the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Action on both bills was delayed after Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky raised objections to expanding the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, named for a Russian lawyer who died in custody after investigating tax fraud. That provision would authorize the Biden administration to impose further sanctions on Russian officials for human rights violations.
