Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday that the Trump administration has issued guidance for the implementation of new sanctions on Russia after the administration missed a deadline for moving forward with the sanctions by several weeks.
“The Senate and House spoke loud and clear by overwhelmingly passing this piece of legislation and sent a strong signal to Iran, Russia and North Korea that our country will stand firm and united in the face of destabilizing behavior,” Corker said in a statement. “The guidance provided today by the State Department is a good first step in responsibly implementing a very complex piece of legislation, and I appreciate Secretary Tillerson’s attention to this important issue. Congress will expect thorough and timely consultation until full implementation is complete.”
The guidance was issued after Corker spoke to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan about the delay in implementing the sanctions, according to the Daily Beast.
Congress passed a bill to enact new sanctions on Russia in July, and President Donald Trump reluctantly signed it into law. The legislation set an Oct. 1 deadline for the administration to name which entities would be hit with the new sanctions. However, Corker told reporters earlier this week that the administration had let nearly a month go by since the deadline without naming the entities, noting that he was not sure whether the delay was intentional.
“We’re going to check into it,” he said, according to Vox. “I don’t have any way of evaluating whether it’s purposeful or not purposeful.”
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, respectively, confirmed in a Thursday statement that the administration had issued the guidance.
“The administration’s announcement is a step in the right direction toward holding Russia accountable for its attack on our election. By issuing guidance for the implementation of the sanctions legislation, the administration is slowly but surely carrying out the law that Congress passed overwhelmingly this summer,” the senators said in a statement. “We will conduct focused oversight on this issue and stand ready if appropriate and necessary to apply relevant provisions of the sanctions law related to congressional review.”
McCain and Cardin also urged the State Department to assign the proper staff to implementation of the sanctions. Foreign Policy reported Thursday evening that the State Department has closed its office dedicated to sanctions. David Tessler, the deputy director of the Policy Planning Office, will now oversee sanctions policy, Foreign policy reported, citing congressional staff and former diplomats.
“We also encourage the State Department to dedicate robust staffing and resources to the implementation effort, especially in light of reports that the sanctions office has been closed, a number of its staff have resigned, and the mandate for sanctions implementation has been shifted to the Policy Planning staff, which has not traditionally played an operational role,” the senators wrote in their statement. “Providing dedicated staffing and resources within the State Department will demonstrate the administration’s commitment to carrying out this vitally important law.”
