US Senate Begins Debate on Bill for Additional Sanctions Against Russia and Iran

The United States Senate has approved a motion to proceed to the next stage of discussion on a bill concerning the imposition of additional sanctions against Russia and Iran. The agreement was reached in a second procedural vote and secured more than 50 per cent of the votes from senators present in the upper chamber of the US Congress. Based on the vote count, the bill obtained the necessary number of votes to advance to formal debate in the Senate, where senators can propose amendments. Following this process, the US Senate will hold another procedural vote, which requires a threshold of 60 votes to invoke cloture, a formal parliamentary procedure to end debate and force a vote, which then only requires a simple majority to pass. If approved by the Senate, the additional sanctions bill will be sent to the US House of Representatives for consideration. The vote was the second procedural step regarding the bill in less than 24 hours. On Tuesday, the Senate held a vote to end debate on the motion to proceed to the discussion stage of the bill. The sanctions bill, released earlier in July, proposes reducing the proposed tariff on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas from 500 per cent to 100 per cent, according to a review and quotes by RIA Novosti. At the same time, the bill would impose a 500 per cent tariff on all goods imported into the US from Russia. The document would also propose sanctions against the Russian Central Bank, Sberbank, VTB, and Gazprombank. On Tuesday, 14 July, US President Donald Trump said his administration was reviewing the bill, which he said had a good chance of passing Congress. Trump said the decision was made to honour the late Senator Lindsey Graham.