- Only three House Republicans voted against suspending trade relations with Russia.
- They were Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Thomas Massie.
- Congress overwhelmingly approved bills to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Congress approved a bill on Thursday afternoon to suspend trade relations with Russia. It's the first time that lawmakers sent legislation to punish the Kremlin to President Joe Biden's desk since Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine over a month ago.
Appetite has grown in Congress to further isolate Moscow with new reports of Russian soldiers indiscriminately killing Ukrainian civilians.
Both the House and Senate cleared the bill with blowout bipartisan margins. Earlier in the day, the Senate approved the measure to freeze free trade with Russia in a 100-0 vote.
The House quickly followed suit on the eve of a two-week recess, approving the bill in a 420-3 vote. Three House Republicans were the only members of Congress that opposed the legislation:
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
- Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida
- Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky
All three cited in some form concerns with the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law that gives the federal government broad authority to sanction those deemed to have engaged in human rights abuses or acts of corruption. "Extending the already overly broad executive powers in the Magnitsky Act forever is legislative malpractice," Massie said in a statement to Insider.
In a video published on Twitter after the vote, Greene cast her decision as one aimed at not handing "too much broad power" to the executive branch.
Gaetz used similar reasoning for balking at the measure. "President Biden should not have a blank check to sanction whoever he deems a 'human rights violator,'" he wrote on Twitter.
The bill heads to Biden for his signature. It was held up in the Senate for over three weeks while Republicans and Democrats settled disputes over the breadth of sanctions included in the trade legislation.
Congress on Thursday also approved a bill to bar Russian oil imports, a step that Biden had taken last month.