The Washington Post article just on line is titled: Senate overwhelmingly votes to curtail Trump’s power to ease Russia sanctions,
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow Congress to block any efforts by the president to scale back sanctions against Russia, and to strengthen those sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 election and its actions in Syria.
The vote of 97 to 2 is a sharp rebuke to President Trump’s posture on Russia and his resistance to the intelligence community’s assessment that the country was behind efforts to influence the election he won.
Trump never actually weighed in on this bill, but his Secretary of State did say that the administration opposed it.
“The president’s team pushed back Wednesday against the legislation, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warning lawmakers against passing anything that might tie the administration’s hands. We would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to, but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue,” Tillerson said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee
This bill still has to go to the House, and we don't know what will happen. So, maybe we should hold our celebration of Congress showing the guts to buck their leader until we see if the other chamber follows their lead.
Personally, the substance of this legislation isn't the issue for me, but it’s the very fact that Republicans could join with their enemies, the Democrats to vote together AGAINST the titular head of their party. This is rare in our history, and confirms that, while Trump achieved a hostile take over of the Republican party, he did not gain absolute control.
This is a breakthrough, and I wait eagerly to see what will happen in the House of Representatives.