Trump’s pause on Russia sanctions triggers pushback from Pennsylvania
Several Pennsylvania lawmakers are criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to pause a bipartisan law that would have expanded sanctions on Russia.
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., an ally of Trump, voted in support of H.R. 5334, the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” when it passed the upper chamber by an 86-11 vote in August.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, McCormick said he supports Trump’s goal of ending the war in Ukraine and his efforts to bring down fuel prices, but also believes the U.S. needs to keep the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I would not be in favor of giving a reprieve on the sanctions,” McCormick said. “We’ve got to keep the pressure on Putin. He’s the aggressor here.”
“At the same time, we’ve got to lower fuel prices,” he continued. “There’s other ways to do that, and the president’s doing it.”
Just days after Trump signed the bill into law last month, McCormick noted Graham’s efforts against Russia.
“My friend Lindsey Graham spent his final months working to cut off the money fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine,” McCormick said on X Sept. 22. “Last week, @POTUS signed the bipartisan bill named for him into law, and at the @UN, he said he’d use its powers if necessary. Buyers of Russian oil, beware.”
In addition to this legislation cruising through the U.S. Senate with the support of McCormick and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., a majority of Pennsylvania lawmakers serving in the U.S. House also backed the bill that authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia, while also extending existing sanctions on Iran.
Trump signed the bill into law on Sept. 18, but announced on Friday, via executive order, that there would be a pause before it was set to be implemented just two days later, making the case to Congress that the pause was in the national interest.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1st District, who serves as co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, was one of the 12 U.S. House members from Pennsylvania’s delegation to vote in support of this legislation.
On Monday, Fitzpatrick issued a lengthy statement on social media announcing that he would be speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team this week about the decision by Trump to pause the sanctions, plus Ukraine losing access to Starshield, which The Hill described as the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink internet.
“I will be assuring President Zelenskyy that anyone who attempts to limit the use of Starshield for Ukraine will be fully investigated and will be held fully accountable, to include public congressional oversight hearings, and immediate harsh and punitive budget cuts to any responsible agency or agency head,” Fitzpatrick said. “Congress will unequivocally reaffirm that Ukraine is an indispensable ally to the United States, that Russia is a self-declared enemy of the United States, and that the United States will 100% support and defend the people of Ukraine in their fight for their own freedom against this brutal, illegal, and unprovoked Russian invasion.”
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield.
Fitzpatrick added that he believes the U.S. must provide any and all defensive equipment that Ukraine needs to defend itself.
In that same statement, Fitzpatrick also referenced a deal made by Trump’s administration with Putin to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian fuel exports.
“The United States must not import a single drop of Russian oil,” Fitzpatrick said. “Sanctions against the Russian regime must be harsher and stronger than they’ve ever been before. Each and every one of these items will be brought to the House Floor—and each and every one of these items will pass on the House Floor by an overwhelming margin.”
“This is, after all, what Ronald Reagan would do. And this is what we will do now,” he continued. “Ukraine can, and will, defeat Russia. #PeaceThroughStrength.”
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th District, is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In 2024, she joined a bipartisan delegation in a visit to Ukraine in 2024 to meet with U.S. troops in Poland, Ukrainian troops in Ukraine, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Dean, who voted in support of the bill, noted last month that she did not often agree with the late Graham, but said the additional sanctions offered them hope.
Following Trump’s decision to pause the sanctions, Dean condemned the Trump administration, writing on social media Monday that “Ukraine is our ally, yet this administration’s actions suggest otherwise. We must stand with the people of Ukraine in their fight for sovereignty against Russia’s illegal, brutal invasion.”
She also took to MS NOW to lay out her disagreements with Trump over the matter, saying that she found it “historically dishonorable that this administration has engaged in a series of consequences that really support Putin and harm Ukraine.”
“The president lifting of sanctions on Russia, the diesel deal with Russia that will reward Russia with hundreds of millions of dollars and won’t get us anywhere, the interruptions and this took up an awful lot of call of Starlink and the deadly consequences … ,” she said before noting that Ukraine couldn’t know the dangers coming their way.
“But the there’s more,” she continued. “The executive order Friday night saying that the president would not follow the Lindsey Graham bill that so many had offered hope to Ukraine, $400 million. This is what President Zelensky said: “In weapons not coming and not released. Mr. Hegseth failing to sign for their release.”
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th District, also voted in support of the legislation last month. When doing so, she explained how she thinks it’s in the best interest of the U.S., while also noting how supporting Ukraine was “deeply personal” to her, due to her father fleeing from Ukraine (formerly, Poland), with his mother to escape the Holocaust.
Houlahan has posted several statements on social media over the past few days, lambasting recent actions from the Trump administration.
“The Trump Administration is now buying Russian diesel and giving sanctions relief while restricting Ukraine’s ability to intercept drones, and reportedly withholding air defense missiles from Kyiv,” Houlahan said on Monday. “All while Russia supplies Iran with intelligence used to attack American troops.”
“Trump’s war with Iran is driving up costs for American families, while his administration sends your taxpayer dollars to an adversary targeting our servicemembers,” she continued. “It’s indefensible.”
While a majority of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation voted in support of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, four members from the Keystone State voted against it.
One of those lawmakers is U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-17th District. On Monday, he emphasized why he opposed the bill last month, while criticizing Trump’s decision.
“I voted NO on this sanctions bill because I thought it was foolish to give even more power to Donald Trump. And look what he just did with it: he waived all the bill’s sanctions on Russia, a total gift to Putin,” Deluzio wrote on Monday. “This undermines our friends in Ukraine, who have fought valiantly for their sovereignty.”
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5th District, also voted against the bill last month.
On Sunday, she shared a video of her offering an amendment to the bill last month, which would have blocked Trump from waiving Russian sanctions. However, this amendment failed.
“On Friday, President Trump did exactly that: issuing an EO that exempts Russia from the new sanctions passed by Congress last month, a dangerous decision that puts our allies at risk,” Scanlon wrote on X.
In the video of her offering the amendment, she made the case that the bill, without that amendment, would “grant the president almost unlimited authority to waive sanctions with essentially no accountability to Congress.”
“We’ve already seen the president roll back sanctions on Russian oil when it suited his personal or political goals earlier this year, and we can be reasonably sure that he’ll do it again if given the opportunity,” Scanlon said before the bill passed last month. “Congress needs to set strong guardrails to ensure that the president carries out the intent of Congress.”
Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest pockets of Ukrainian culture in the country, with more than 120,000 declaring their heritage to the nation. Tens of thousands have settled in the state since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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