A group of U.S. House members are planning to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson and bring a bill to a vote in the coming weeks to tighten sanctions on Russia, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick said.
He noted in X that earlier that day, lawmakers had “formally notified“ the president's office that they had introduced a relevant legislative initiative. It calls for the document to be brought to a vote without Johnson's approval. For this to happen, the resolution must be supported by 218 lawmakers.
Fitzpatrick added that a group of congressmen “are pushing for a vote on tough sanctions against Russia immediately upon return“ from the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November (November 27 in 2025). Don Bacon (Republican of Nebraska) expressed his readiness to support the initiative. According to Politico, other members of Congress from both parties are also ready to do this. They may take similar measures on other anti-Russian bills.
On November 21, Johnson said in an interview with The Hill that he believed it would be easier to vote on the bill to tighten sanctions against Russia first in the Senate, rather than in the House of Representatives.
The Russia sanctions bill includes secondary restrictions on Russia's trading partners. Washington is expected to impose tariffs of 500% on imports from countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other goods from Russia.
A similar bill was previously introduced in the US Senate by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune earlier this week could not confirm that the bill could be passed by the upper house of Congress before the end of the year. However, Thune effectively advocated for the initiative to first pass the House of Representatives.
On November 16, US President Donald Trump announced his support for a bill to impose sanctions on countries cooperating with Russia. Later, a senior White House official told Reuters that Trump was ready to sign the bill to tighten sanctions against Russia if the final decisions on sanctions were his.
On November 17, the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that Moscow would be extremely negative about the adoption of the aforementioned bill in the United States.