Senate Foreign Relations Committee Eyes Iran Sanctions Bill, Splits on Key Nominee

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., said March 7 that his panel could soon consider several bills, including Iran sanctions legislation.

The lawmaker said that he and Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, the committee’s ranking member, “are working on an agenda for a business meeting that we hope we’ll be able to notice very shortly.”

Cardin said he wants the committee to take up the House-passed Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act, which enjoys bipartisan support and would impose new sanctions on foreign ports and refineries that process or accept Iranian petroleum (see 2311060014). Cardin said in late February that he aims to counter Iran’s illegal oil smuggling to China, which buys most of Iran’s illicit oil exports (see 2402290026). Those oil proceeds fuel Tehran’s support for terrorist groups.

Cardin mentioned the upcoming business meeting during a hearing on several of President Joe Biden’s nominations, including Erik Woodhouse to be head of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination (see 2309050090).

Risch said he opposes Woodhouse’s nomination because of his role in blocking mandatory sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline while Russia was threatening to invade Ukraine (see 2203160063). Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, described the sanctions decision as a “multi-billion dollar gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that emboldened the dictator to proceed with the February 2022 invasion.

Woodhouse said the administration made the sanctions decision based on the information it had at the time. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said that while she disagreed with the administration’s decision not to sanction Nord Stream 2, “for anybody to suggest that that is the reason that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine denies the reality of the situation.”

Woodhouse also took heat for the administration’s implementation of Biden’s Feb. 1 executive order that allows the U.S. to sanction "foreign persons" responsible for an increase in West Bank violence (see 2402010053). Cruz said the administration has sanctioned Israelis but no Palestinians, even though the Palestinian Authority pays Palestinians who commit terrorist attacks against Israelis (see 2403010065). Woodhouse emphasized that the executive order is new and has resulted in only one round of sanctions so far (see 2402010053).

Cruz also criticized the administration for not sanctioning Hamas under the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018, which prohibits the use of civilians as human shields. Woodhouse responded that the administration has imposed many other sanctions on Hamas and its financial network.

While Risch said he will likely try to block the full Senate from considering Woodhouse's nomination, Cardin said he hopes to confirm Woodhouse. He called Woodhouse “superbly qualified,” citing his sanctions experience as a private-practice attorney, at the Treasury Department and in his current role as deputy assistant secretary for counter threat finance and sanctions at the State Department.