11/21/25

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) on Friday said he has submitted a discharge petition to force a vote on bipartisan legislation imposing punishing sanctions on countries enabling Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

The move comes as President Trump is putting intense pressure on Kyiv to accept a peace proposal widely criticized as favorable toward Moscow. 

“This Russian-drafted propaganda must be rejected and disregarded for the unserious nonsense that it is,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a statement on the social platform X. 

“Today, we have officially notified both the Clerk of the House and House leadership of our discharge petition to force a vote on crushing Russian sanctions immediately upon our return.”

The House will return the first week of December, but Fitzpatrick will need to gather 218 signatures before a vote can take place on the floor. His office did not immediately respond to questions about how many signatures he has gathered so far.

Trump said late last week that he was OK with a vote on the legislation, called the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025. This marked a reversal from his months-long position opposing the legislation as harming negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The Senate version of the bill has a veto-proof majority of co-sponsors, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday the House should take up the bill first because it includes revenue measures. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not signal he was looking to quickly bring the bill to the floor for a vote. His office referred comments about the bill to committees with jurisdiction.

Fitzpatrick may have an easy time gaining the needed signatures, given Democratic support for Ukraine and a sizable number of House Republicans willing to back the measure. The House legislation has 119 co-sponsors. 

The legislation calls for the president to impose penalties on Russia if it refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine, violates a negotiated peace agreement, initiates another invasion of Ukraine or seeks to overthrow, dismantle or subvert the government of Ukraine. 

Among the penalties includes a 500 percent tariff on any country buying Russian oil, or Russian uranium; adds new banking sanctions; blocks U.S. energy exports to Russia; puts a 500 percent tariff on Russian exports to the U.S., and directs the president to impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions on Russians supporting the Russian military.

Ukraine’s supporters in Congress said that the release this week of a 28-point peace plan to end Russia’s war heightens the imperative to pass the sanctions legislation. The Moscow-friendly proposal would require Ukraine to cede eastern regions and place various limits on its military and security relationships that Kyiv has said are non-starters.

“No plan will work unless Putin and his allies believe that we’re serious about more military aid, more capability of Ukraine to hurt Russia militarily, and more economic ruin coming to those who prop up Putin’s war machine,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday, adding he was unaware of the details at the time.

“When they believe those things, then the 28-point plan will work.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5617711-fitzpatrick-forces-vote-russia-sanctions