Biden administration moves against Cruz’s Russian pipeline sanctions bill

The Biden administration is campaigning against a bill from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would reimpose sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany.  

Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland and White House energy advisor Amos Hochstein held a briefing with 10 Democratic Senators who were on the fence on Monday, who said the bill would undermine U.S. negotiations with Russia to prevent an invasion of Ukraine, according to The Washington Times.

“If passed, the legislation would only serve to undermine unity amongst our European allies at a crucial moment when we need to present a unified front in response to Russian threats against Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson told The Washington Times on Tuesday.

Sen. Cruz got the Senate’s Democratic leaders to schedule a Jan. 14 vote on his sanctions bill in exchange for votes on Biden administration nominees he has been holding up.

Critics who opposed the lifting of sanctions on the pipeline say it would increase Moscow’s dominance over European energy markets. American diplomats have been using the threat of reimposing the sanctions as leverage to discourage Russia from any military action in neighboring Ukraine.

Democrats in the Senate have had mixed feelings about the sanctions. Some worry about how renewing the sanctions would affect relations with Germany, which desperately needs the gas to compensate for power lost when it shut down its nuclear reactors following the Fukushima disaster. Others do not want to appear soft on Russia.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), one of the Democrats who attended the briefing, said afterward the administration “has to do a better job of messaging where the flaws are” with Cruz’s bill. He remains undecided on how he will vote.

Sen. James E. Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, blasted the Biden administration for blocking the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada but refusing to block Russia’s.

“They stopped a pipeline coming in from Canada,” Risch said. “Why wouldn’t you stop a pipeline that has national security implications. That’s the frustrating part of this thing.”