Jeffries said the legislation had so many loopholes that sanctions harming Russia might not be applied
38m agoDemocratic House leader Jeffries flags concerns as House passes Russia sanctions bill
The unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the US House has changed the congressional districts for one-tenth of Americans and significantly altered the makeup of at least one-fifth of districts, according to a new study.
A report by Protect Democracy found that 34.8m people - about one in 10 Americans - now live in a different district than they did during the 2024 election cycle.
And about one-fifth of all Americans now live in a district where more than a quarter of voters are new to the district compared with the last election cycle, AP reported.
The findings display the stark overhaul that partisan redistricting fights kicked off by president Donald Trump last year have caused for Americans across the country.
“If this trend continues, it really brings into question whether or not elected officials are really representing their constituents anymore, or if the voters are being randomly picked by mapmakers to squeeze out partisan advantage,” said Ben Raderstorf, a policy advocate at Protect Democracy and one of the paper’s co-authors.
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House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Russia sanctions bill had “so many loopholes” as Congress passed the sweeping bill to give Donald Trump the power to raise tariffs on top buyers of Russian energy.
The Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 passed in a 262-159 vote on the last day before Congress goes on recess ahead of the midterm elections. Graham, who died earlier this year, co-authored and submitted the bill more than a year and a half ago.
But Jeffries said the legislation had so many loopholes that sanctions harming Russia might not be applied.
“What this legislation will do is give Donald Trump, perhaps, unfettered authority to unleash tariffs on the American people,” the New York lawmaker said as he announced he would vote no.
Why in the world would this Congress give this president additional authority to visit that kind of economic harm on the American people?
The bill would mandate new sanctions on Russian political and military officials, and foreign networks helping to supply Russia’s war machine and evade existing sanctions. It would also target Russia’s so-called fleet of “shadow tankers”, which have allowed the country to continue to ship crude around the world despite sanctions on its energy exports.
It would also allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top purchasers of Russian energy, including China, as well as other countries helping the Kremlin evade sanctions.
Democratic staffers supporting the bill said that it offered a “last chance” to increase sanctions on Russia before Ukraine entered a “long winter”. Russia has improved the drone technology it has used to strike Ukrainian infrastructure as Kyiv has suffered a shortage of anti-air missiles, leaving the country in a dire position.
Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican supporting the bill, called it the US Congress’ “Churchill vs Chamberlain Moment on Russia”.
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