The
bill is one of the first major pieces of legislation that was sent to
Trump's desk, and it represents a rebuke of the President by giving
Congress new veto power to block him from removing Russia sanctions.
The
White House announced the signing shortly after 11 a.m. ET, saying the
bill includes "a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions" that
"purport to displace the President's exclusive constitutional authority
to recognize foreign governments, including their territorial bounds."
In a separate statement, Trump said he believed the bill to be "seriously flawed" but signed it anyway.
"Still,
the bill remains seriously flawed -- particularly because it encroaches
on the executive branch's authority to negotiate," he said in the
statement. "Congress could not even negotiate a health care bill after
seven years of talking. By limiting the executive's flexibility, this
bill makes it harder for the United States to strike good deals for the
American people, and will drive China, Russia, and North Korea much
closer together."
He
ended the statement by saying: "I built a truly great company worth
many billions of dollars. That is a big part of the reason I was
elected. As President, I can make far better deals with foreign
countries than Congress."
Even
before Trump signed the bill, the measure prompted Russian President
Vladimir Putin to retaliate against the US over the new sanctions, which
Congress levied over Russian interference in the 2016 US election, as
well as Russia's annexation of Crimea and aggression in Syria.
In
addition to the new US sanctions on Russia, former President Barack
Obama seized two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in December
in response to the election meddling. Russia responded by ordering the
US to cut staff at its diplomatic mission by 755 employees, as well as
seizing two US diplomatic properties.
The new sanctions bill hits Russia's energy and defense sectors, and also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and North Korea.
The
measure was signed into law after it passed with overwhelming margins
in both the House and Senate -- which made the threat of a presidential
veto a non-starter -- but it was not an easy road to Trump's desk.
After
the Senate passed the sanctions on Iran and Russia 98-2, the bill
languished in the House for more than a month amid a series of
procedural fights. Then the House added North Korean sanctions before
passing the measure 419-3, effectively forcing the Senate to swallow the
new sanctions in order to get the legislation over the finish line
before Congress left for its August congressional recess.
The
House and Senate struck a deal to make some changes to the bill at the
urging of a host of US industries and European countries, but Congress
did not consider making the change that the White House wanted: removing
the congressional review on Russia sanctions from the bill.
White
House officials lobbied to weaken the section giving Congress a veto on
the easing of sanctions, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned
Congress the administration should have "flexibility" to negotiate with
Russia and improve relations.
But
key Republican and Democratic lawmakers said that weakening
congressional review was not on the table when they were finalizing the
legislation.
Senate Foreign
Relations Chairman Bob Corker, who initially was hesitant to pass a
Russia sanctions bill before he was a key driver to get it done in July,
said he has spoken to the President about the review process to try to
ease the White House's concerns.
Corker
said that Congress would only veto an attempt to lessen sanctions on
Russia if the administration took an "egregious" step to try to remove
sanctions.
"I've walked the
President through the process of how congressional review works," Corker
said. "The administration -- knowing that unless it's way out of bounds
-- likely they have the flexibility to do what they need to do."
Corker
noted that Trump has refused to believe his intelligence leaders that
Russia interfered with the election, and said that may have helped push
Congress to get the bill done quickly.
"I do think that the lack of strong statements in that regard probably effected the outcome," he said.
